Court to decide on Tomy vs. 'Tempo'
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Central Jakarta District Court is expected to hand down a verdict on a libel suit filed by businessman Tomy Winata against a journalist of Tempo magazine on Tuesday. The verdict will be the second to be handed down in 11 legal battles between Tempo media group and the businessman.
Tomy has sought a whopping compensation of Rp 120 billion (US$14.3 million) from the magazine publisher PT Tempo Inti Media and the weekly's journalist Ahmad Taufik for his statement in the chronology of the attack on Tempo's office on Jl. Proklamasi, Central Jakarta, and its journalists on March 8, 2003.
In the chronology, which was widely circulated on the Internet in the wake of the attack, Taufik said that Tomy owned numerous entertainment spots and gambling dens.
Although the chronology has reached readers through a variety of means, Tomy's legal team are only concerned with the one that appeared on Detikcom news portal on March 12.
Tomy's lawyers said that the statement had caused their client to suffer losses, claiming that many of Tomy's partners had canceled their business deals with him.
In the suit, which was filed with the court on June 5, 2003, Tomy's lawyers demanded Taufik and the publishing company pay Rp 40 billion for the material losses and Rp 80 billion for the nonmaterial losses.
Although the publisher had nothing to do with the statement, the lawyers argued that it had to take responsibility for its employees' conduct. They also demanded the court confiscate assets of the publisher and the 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 days.
Tempo media group lost its case against the businessman last month when the South Jakarta District Court ruled in favor of Tomy in a libel suit against Koran Tempo daily and ordered the daily to pay US$1 million in damages.
A panel of judges at the court found the daily guilty of running an article titled (Southeast Sulawesi) Governor Ali Mazi denies Tomy Winata to open casino which it considered libelous. Koran Tempo appealed the verdict.
The verdict was criticized by the international and national media community, saying that such a ruling constituted efforts to curb press freedom by legal means. Some experts urged judges to apply the Press Law instead of the Criminal Code in legal disputes involving the press.
The Central Jakarta District Court had ruled on Nov. 27, 2003, in favor of Tempo magazine in a defamation suit filed by the owner of Texmaco group Marimutu Sinivasan.
The same court, however, acquitted David Tjioe alias A Miauw, Tomy's minion who led the attack on Tempo's office, of assault or inciting violence earlier last year.