Former employees of `Tempo' plan new magazine

Former employees of `Tempo' plan new magazine

JAKARTA (JP): Former journalists and employees of the defunct
Tempo weekly yesterday formally applied for a new publishing
license, or SIUPP, for a weekly they plan to call Opini.

Bambang Bujono, Chairman of Tempo's Employees' Welfare
Foundation, told a press conference at Tempo's office in
Kuningan, South Jakarta, that the application was submitted
yesterday morning to the Ministry of Information -- who has the
authority to issue the SIUPP -- as well as to the Jakarta and
national chapters of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI)
and the Union of Newspaper Publishers (SPS).

"I went through each legal step of the process to get the
paperwork done," Bambang said.

The government banned the Tempo, DeTik and Editor weeklies in
June for what it considered administrative and substantial
reasons.

Bambang explained that the proposal was made not only by the
request of former Tempo employees who desperately needed a job,
but was also a response to the call of several ministers,
including Minister of Information Harmoko and Coordinating
Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman,
who guaranteed the employees would have no trouble obtaining a
new license.

Bambang believed, however, that the Foundation, which is made
up of Tempo's 74 journalists and some 200 non-editorial staff,
only have a five-percent chance of obtaining the new SIUPP.

"Being a pessimistic person, I believe we must always prepare
for the worst. So I tell the other employees our chance is very
small, which is better than raising their expectations too high."

A previous SIUPP proposal presented earlier to the Ministry of
Information, which listed him as chief editor, was rejected on
the grounds that he was not a member of PWI -- although he had
worked for 15 years at Tempo -- he said.

PWI is the only association of journalists the government
recognizes in Indonesia.

Voting

Candidates for Opini's management, chosen by voting, include
Yusril Djalinus as General Manager and Chief Editor and Bambang
Halintar as director.

Bambang Bujono had actually obtained 174, or 69 percent, of
the total votes for chief editor, far more than the 100 Djalinus
received.

Bambang acknowledged that any negotiations with the ministry
would "only go as far as discussing the license and other such
matters" but if a certain official of the ministry insists on
becoming the magazine's patron, an approval would have to be
obtained from the employees.

Capital for the new magazine will be obtained from the 20
percent of shares the employees had in PT Grafiti Pers, Tempo's
former publishing company. The new magazine will therefore be
owned 100 percent by its employees.

Bambang said Grafiti Pers had agreed to cash the shares, which
reached some Rp 4 billion (US$1.84 million).

"SPS is confident about the new magazine and says this money
is more than enough to start the weekly -- considering the human
resources we have -- so we don't feel we need any additional
investment from outsiders," he said.

A number of tycoons, including timber baron Mohammad (Bob)
Hasan, have been rumored to be linked with the plan to start a
new magazine employing former Tempo journalists.

Bambang said Opini would resemble Tempo in many ways with a
few additions and reductions, but "we expect it to be even better
than Tempo". Fifty thousand issues of its first edition is
expected to be launched this month if it is given a license."

Costing Rp 4,500 per issue, the foundation intends to gain a
profit of about Rp 4 million for each edition, or some Rp 200
million a year.(pwn)