Court to decide on Tomy vs. 'Tempo'

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.