Former minister of mines to sue tabloid for libel
JAKARTA (JP): Former minister of mines and energy I.B. Sudjana lodged a libel complaint against the new tabloid Penta at National Police Headquarters on Monday.
The retired lieutenant general arrived at the police headquarters on Jl. Trunojoyo in South Jakarta at around 10 a.m., accompanied by a team of six lawyers from Ruhut Sitompul and Associates.
In his complaint, Sudjana said that the Dec. 31 front-page report of the weekly tabloid's 10th edition, under the headline, "I.B. Sudjana kabur? (Is I.B. Sudjana fleeing the country?)", was defamatory and consisted of libel.
"You, as journalists, must know how it feels to be portrayed in such a way," Sudjana told a packed media conference at the police headquarters.
Sudjana said he was offended by the newspaper, who he said portrayed him as a criminal.
"I'm not a criminal. Why should I run away? Many people know my address ... you can check, I'm not going anywhere."
Sudjana also said he was never contacted by any reporters from the tabloid, either for an interview or for confirmation of facts.
The tabloid's report, which was about the dispute between the Ministry of Mines and Energy and PT Petrobuild Indonesia, bluntly referred to it as a dispute between Sudjana and the company.
"The dispute is clearly between the ministry and PT Petrobuild ... How can the publication put me, in my capacity as an ordinary citizen, in the dispute? If I wanted to defend the national asset, was it wrong?" Sudjana asked.
Another report in the same tabloid referred to an ambitious Sudjana and his family who were illegally amassing wealth during his tenure.
Sudjana's lawyer, Petrus Balla Pattyona, told reporters that his client would be filing both criminal and civil law suits against the newspaper.
"We claim Rp 2 trillion (US$250 million) for the defamation and will seek the hardest punishment for those who misuse their power by publishing such irresponsible reports," Petrus said, adding that there had been a rising number of new publications who portrayed people as they liked, without checking their information.
Sudjana's complaint was received by the chief of the general crimes unit, Col. Makbul Padmanagara.
"We will study the content and the language of the tabloid's reports first," Makbul said.
The police would surely summon Penta's executives, he said, without giving details on the schedule of the summonses.
When contacted later on Monday, Penta's managing editor, Mawardi Ittam, said he knew nothing about the lawsuit. "I didn't know we'd been sued," he said.
When pressed about the disputed reports, Mawardi declined to comment.
At least two other new tabloids have received complaints from the country's top figures for similar incidents.
Try Sutrisno
The biweekly Warta Republik tabloid was slammed by then vice president Try Sutrisno for running a story on his "illicit love affair" he was said to have had with a widow.
The incident resulted in the paper's general manager and managing editor being called before the Jakarta police.
Maj. Gen. (ret) Theo Syafei, former chief of the Udayana Military Command, also filed suit against the tabloid Abadi for connecting his speech in a church with a later riot in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.
The tabloids were among the 535 new publications to be recorded at the Ministry of Information between the downfall of former president Soeharto in May up until mid-December.
Under the New Order, there were only 289 publications officially recorded with the ministry nationwide. (emf)