'Antara-Lusa' pact hoped to help bilateral ties

'Antara-Lusa' pact hoped to help bilateral ties

JAKARTA (JP): Official news agency, Antara expects a
cooperation agreement with its Portuguese counterpart will
improve the sometimes strained relations between the two
countries.

Antara managing director Parni Hadi said on Friday he hoped
the cooperation with the Lusa agency, announced in conjunction
with the former's 61st founding anniversary which falls Saturday,
could help the settlement of the East Timor problem.

"The cooperation will hopefully help efforts by the Indonesian
and Portuguese governments to settle the East Timor question
through dialog held under the aegis of the UN secretary-
general," Parni was quoted as saying by Antara.

The cooperation agreement will be signed during a ceremony
marking the anniversary at the State Palace on Saturday.

Under the agreement, Antara and Lusa will exchange news and
place correspondents respectively in Lisbon and Jakarta, Parni
said after closing a journalism course for military officers at
the Antara building here on Friday.

Indonesia declared East Timor its 27th province in 1976.
However, the United Nations has not recognized the move and
considers Lisbon the official administrator in the former
Portuguese colony.

Also to be signed Saturday are cooperation agreements for
marketing real time economic data to Indonesian business circles
with Bridge of the United States, and in public relations with
the Australian news agency, AAP.

The agency also reported that Reuters will transfer the
marketing of Reuters Business Briefing (RBB) to Antara on the
same day. RBB will be marketed in Indonesia's major cities
outside Jakarta.

At the closing of the journalism course, the Armed Forces
deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Sutan Iskandar emphasized the need
for officers to have good journalistic skills. "In the
information age, the country's military faces a war of
information."

Meanwhile, Parni was quoted as saying he was sure that the
beating of an Antara photojournalist by military personnel during
last month's Special Session of the People's Consultative
Assembly would be brought before a military tribunal.

Three photojournalists from Antara, Kompas daily and Gatra
newsmagazine were beaten during a clash between hundreds of
student demonstrators and security forces on Jl. Diponegoro,
Central Jakarta. (anr)