Court rejects Tomy's suit vs 'Tempo'
Court rejects Tomy's suit vs 'Tempo'
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The panel of judges at the Central Jakarta District Court
rejected on Tuesday the Rp 120 billion (US$14.3 million) civil
suit filed by well-connected businessman Tomy Winata against
Tempo magazine.
The judges stated that the defamation suit against journalist
Ahmad Taufik and publisher PT Tempo Inti Media was invalid
because the plaintiff failed to name all of the proper
defendants.
The judges also ruled that aside from naming Taufik and the
publisher as the accused, the plaintiff should have also named
detik.com news portal and its reporter Didik Supriyanto as they
also published a chronology of how Tomy's supporters allegedly
assaulted the journalist and several of his colleagues at the
Central Jakarta Police precinct last year.
"It was the news portal that ran Taufik's statement in a
report entitled Kekerasan terhadap Tempo menurut Ahmad Taufik
(Violence against Tempo as told by Ahmad Taufik) written by Didik
Supriyanto. Therefore, all parties should be named in the suit,"
presiding judge Saparudin Hasibuan said.
Tomy's lawyer Elsa Syarif -- also the lawyer for Hutomo
"Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former president
Soeharto -- said that they would appeal the verdict and filed
another defamation suit that would include the news portal and
its journalists as the accused.
Taufik's defense lawyers said they were satisfied with the
ruling.
"Other media have also run stories similar to Taufik's
chronology. He was not the only one that should be brought to
court for allegedly defaming Tomy," lawyer Darwin Aritonang said.
Besides demanding the Rp 120 billion in compensation for
Taufik's statement on the chronology of the events surrounding
the protest demonstration at the Tempo office on March 8, 2003,
Tomy's lawyers also demanded the court confiscate the assets of
the publishers and printing company PT Temprint as collateral.
The lawyers also demanded that Taufik publish an apology in a
number of dailies and weeklies for three consecutive days and to
broadcast the apology on all television stations for seven
consecutive days.
Although the account was widely reported publicly in the wake
of the demonstration, Tomy's lawyers were only concerned with the
one that appeared on detik.com on March 12, 2003.
The lawyers claimed the report had caused their client to
suffer losses, as many of Tomy's partners canceled their business
deals with him.
The ruling was the second of 11 legal battles, seven of which
Tomy is the plaintiff.
Last month, the South Jakarta District Court found Koran Tempo
daily guilty of running a libelous article on Tomy and ordered it
to pay US$1 million in damage. They have not yet paid pending the
outcome of their appeal.