Corrections from Atmakusumah

I am writing this letter to correct some misquotes that appeared in the article Press freedom 'still under threat' (The Jakarta Post, July 23, 2002, page 20). The article was apparently based on an interview with me, which was conducted by your correspondent in Palu, Central Sulawesi.

1) I began writing for the media while attending junior high school in Jakarta (not in Medan, North Sumatra). My articles were then printed in, among others, the Medan-based weekly magazine Waktu.

2) It is not the Raymond Magsaysay award, but the Ramon Magsaysay award. Muhtar Lubis is spelled Mochtar Lubis. Djafar Assegaf is spelled Dja'far Husin Assegaff.

3) The article says: "Lubis and several others in the media were brought to court, while Atmakusumah and 14 other journalists were blacklisted." Mochtar Lubis, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the daily Indonesia Raya, and his deputy editor-in-chief Enggak Baha'uddin were imprisoned for several months without a trial. Following the ban of the daily and weekly newspapers and one news magazine in the aftermath of the "Malari" (January catastrophe) affairs in January 1974, fourteen journalists, including Lubis, Baha'uddin and myself, were blacklisted by the New Order government.

4) Dja'far H. Assegaff was named Indonesia's ambassador to Hanoi in 1994, not 1999. He was then succeeded by Jakob Oetama as director of the Soetomo Press Institute (LPDS) and me as LPDS executive director.

ATMAKUSUMAH ASTRAATMADJA, Jakarta