Banned publications deserve reprieve: Emil
JAKARTA (JP): Leading reform campaigner Emil Salim said yesterday that the political openness required for reform should be preceded by a respect for media freedoms.
Emil called on President B.J. Habibie to allow publications closed down by former president Soeharto's regime to reopen.
"(Publications) such as Tempo, Editor and DeTik which won their cases (against the government) in court, should of course be allowed to publish again," Emil told reporters after he and four other pro-reform activists met with Habibie at the Bina Graha presidential office yesterday.
"They won in court. They should legally be allowed to publish again," Emil said of the weeklies which were banned in 1994.
The employees of Tempo sued the Ministry of Information over the banning of the magazine and won in the lower and higher administrative courts in Jakarta. They lost their case in the Supreme Court, much to the consternation of Indonesian journalists.
The government banned the weeklies for administrative violations as well as their "editorial content".
The public speculation, however, was that the publications were muzzled because their reports offended certain parties in the political elite, including Habibie, who, in his position as state minister of research and technology, was in charge of a much-criticized purchase of 39 used warships from Germany.
Journalists who lost their jobs and felt they were not adequately protected by the official Association of Indonesian Journalists (PWI) protested by establishing the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).
Yesterday, the alliance made a call for reform in the mass media, demanding a cease to government meddling in the media and a termination of censorship and bannings. They also urged the government to lift its restriction that journalists may only assemble in the sole, government-sanctioned PWI.
In addition, the alliance called for an end to regulations constricting media freedoms, including a requirement for publication licenses.
In a related development, the Yogyakarta PWI branch urged the local police yesterday to open a fresh investigation into the 1996 murder of Bernas daily reporter Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin.
Masduki Atamimi said the PWI investigation team for the case and the police could now "literally join hands" in revealing the facts of the case. He said Bantul police chief Lt. Col. Yotje Mende had called his team and asked for further information.
Fuad, better known as Udin, was attacked by a group of unidentified men at his home in Bantul on August 13, 1996. He died three days later in a hospital without regaining consciousness.
Police, widely criticized for their dubious methods in the investigation, charged Dwi Sumaji of killing the reporter, but he was later acquitted. Many people believed Udin was killed because of his critical reporting.
In Jakarta yesterday, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said police were looking into new clues regarding Udin's murder.
"We will continue to work on the case. We are calling on people with information to come forward," he said.
"The police has received demands from journalists and PWI chairman, Sofyan Lubis, to continue the investigation. Currently we are running it, and hopefully we will gain a more informative and transparent result," Da'i added. (swe/23/edt)