Courts told to free RI, Thai journalists
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A group of journalist associations has stepped up the pressure on Indonesia and Thailand to free several journalists being tried in the two countries for defamation.
Journalist Bambang Harymurti is being tried in Jakarta, while researcher Supinya Klangnarong and several journalists from the daily Thai Post are on trial in Bangkok.
The call for the journalists' release comes as courts in the two countries prepare to announce their decisions in the journalists' cases on Monday.
Spearheaded by the London-based Article 19, the associations said in a joint statement the civil and defamation charges against Bambang, Supinya and the Thai Post journalists, particularly where there was a threat of imprisonment, represented a breach of freedom of expression.
"The charges send a negative message to all journalists and media organizations, exerting a chilling effect on freedom of expression and undermining the ability of the media to fulfill its role as watchdog of the government and the powerful establishment," said the group in a statement released on Saturday.
Members of the group include Article 19, a non-governmental organization focusing on freedom of expression, the Jakarta-based Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information and the Thai Broadcast Journalist Association.
In Indonesia, prominent journalist Bambang Harymurti, the chief editor of Tempo weekly magazine, will hear on Monday the court's verdict in his defamation case. The charge was filed against him by businessman Tomy Winata.
Prosecutors have demanded Bambang be sentenced to two years in jail for causing social unrest and defaming Tomy.
The district court will also hand down verdicts for two other Tempo journalists, Ahmad Taufik and Tengku Iskandar Ali, who have also been charged with defamation.
The charges against the three journalists stem from an article published last year in Tempo magazine, titled Is Tomy in Tenabang? The article implied that Tomy was connected to a devastating fire that destroyed much of the Tanah Abang textile market in February 2003.
In Thailand, Supinya, the secretary-general of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform, and several Thai Post journalists were also brought to court after the daily ran a story on July 16 last year suggesting that a company linked to Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra was the beneficiary of Thaksin's policies. The article noted a sharp rise in the company's profits since Sinawatra took office in February 2001.
The company, Shin Corp., Thailand's largest telecommunications company, whose main shareholder is the Sinawatra family, filed a defamation suit against Supinya and the Thai Post journalists, seeking monetary compensation from the defendants.