Court rejects 'Tempo' lawsuit for compensation

Court rejects 'Tempo' lawsuit for compensation

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court dismissed yesterday a damages claim brought against Information Minister Harmoko by former employees of the banned Tempo newsweekly.

The decision dampened the workers' jubilation over their victory in a related action against the minister in the Jakarta State Administrative Court last week.

The district court dismissed the compensation claim, filed separately by the former employees of Tempo, on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to hear the action.

"A general court has no jurisdiction to decide this case," Judge Leo Hutagalung said in delivering his judgment. He said the case properly fell within the jurisdiction of the State Administrative Court.

The half-hour court sitting was attended by lawyer Rita Serena Kolibonso on behalf of the 39 former employees of the outlawed news magazine.

Hutagalung said the case should be heard by an administrative court because the suit arose from a ministerial decree. Minister Harmoko banned Tempo in a decree last June, citing unacceptable editorial content.

In his reasons for deciding, Hutagalung said that because administrative courts cannot hear damages cases in which the amount claimed exceeded Rp 5 million (about US$ 2,245), the action should be dropped altogether.

The former employees of the popular weekly filed a suit against Information Minister Harmoko in November, seeking damages in the sum of Rp 936 million (about US$420,000) in respect of two years' loss of income.

The plaintiffs also sought an order that the minister make a formal apology for causing them to become unemployed. Before being banned, Tempo was Indonesia's best-selling magazine, with a circulation of about 180,000.

After hearing the court's decision Rita said her clients might appeal the decision or commence a new action.

The decision came after a landmark court victory last week in which the State Administrative Court overturned the ban on Tempo, citing inadequacies in the ministerial decree which rendered it void in law.

Harmoko promptly declared that he would appeal the administrative court's decision and that he had appointed the Attorney General to represent him.

Legal expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo said there were several avenues that Rita and the Tempo employees could pursue, but added that the highly political nature of the case might eventually thwart their efforts.

The staff lecturer at the University of Indonesia's Law School told The Jakarta Post that Rita could either reframe the suit so that individual employees each demanded compensation of less than Rp 5 million, or appeal the district court's decision.

"I believe this glitch concerned procedural issues," Harkristuti said. "The administrative court's ruling is not yet final, so the employees do not have the benefit of any established legal precedent regarding the case."

"That's probably why the Central Jakarta district court refused to hear the compensation claim," she said. "The lawsuit against Harmoko, which the former employees won last week, could fail in a higher court."

Harkristuti said that both Goenawan Mohamad, Tempo's former chief editor, and the other employees should have included their compensation claim in their actions against the ban.

But the administrative's court limit of Rp 5 million made this difficult, she said. "The only option left to them is to file for compensation on an individual basis, rather than collectively," she said.

She warned that, even if the court agreed to hear the compensation case or the former employees decided to pursue it in the administrative court, unpredictable elements might intervene.

"This is a political issue...Even if those former employees win the cases, there's no guarantee that they will eventually get their money," she said. "This is very problematical."

Regarding the administrative court decision, Harkristuti said she had no way of predicting the outcome. "Anything could happen...Even if the case is won in the Supreme Court, the decision could still be nullified," she said.

"I know this doesn't make sense, but we have to admit that sometimes there are no rules about the law," she said. "So, I suggest that the Tempo employees check their jubilation now, because nothing's final yet."

"They're in for a very long journey," she said. However, "for the situation as a whole, this development is quite encouraging because we can see that the judicial branch of power has started to exert its muscle in the face of the executive power." (swe)