After the 'Tempo' verdict

The efforts by Goenawan Mohamad to resurrect Tempo have failed. The Supreme Court, in a hearing presided over by Chief Justice Soerjono Thursday, rejected charges made by Goenawan Mohamad over revocation of the magazine's publishing license (by Minister of Information Harmoko). In its verdict the Supreme Court overturned the previous decisions of the Jakarta Administrative Court and the Jakarta Administrative High Court, both of which ruled in Goenawan's favor.

The question now is: to what degree did the political nuances inherent in this case influence the legal process? Frankly, this is not an easy question to answer. The Supreme Court rejected the legal arguments made by the administrative court and the administrative high court. This, under the existing judicial hierarchy and under the formal principles of legality, is indeed possible.

However, aside from this formal logic of legality, another and no less important consideration exist -- one which concerns our sense of justice. In the wake of this case, and previous cases as well, people ask: Why must the penalty for an editorial "error" be borne by so many people due to the closure of the publication? Why not simply take the responsible editor to court?

It is from such cases that we feel that there is still no concord between our sense of justice and our formal legal reasoning. We hope, therefore, that after this precedent...the government will sit down with our legal experts and community representatives and talk about the problem.

-- Republika, Jakarta