Banned 'Editor' to get new license

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Information Harmoko promised yesterday that the government will soon issue a new publishing license for journalists of the defunct Editor news weekly.

Harmoko told a hearing with Commission I of the House of Representatives yesterday that the new license should be out within this month.

The minister specifically praised the former employees of Editor for accepting the government's decision to revoke its license in June and working to consolidate and establish a new magazine.

"From the beginning, they never questioned the decision to revoke their publishing license," he said.

Sources at the old Editor office said they have been working on a new magazine which they intend to call Proaktif.

Editor lost its license together with two other magazines, Tempo and Detik. Editor and Detik were faulted for administrative reasons, while Tempo was faulted because of its editorial content.

In contrast to Editor, many employees of Tempo and Detik protested at the government's decision to revoke their publishing licenses.

Harmoko said that as far as the government was concerned, it has already issued a new publishing license to former employees of Tempo for a magazine called Gatra.

He said that the fact that not all former employees of Tempo have joined Gatra was the internal affair of Tempo.

Tempo employees split into two groups after the magazine was closed down. One camp joined tycoon Mohammad (Bob) Hasan to establish Gatra, while another has attempted to establish another magazine, but have not been given a license.

Harmoko said the Ministry of Information has not received any application for a new magazine from the former employees of Detik. (emb)