Former minister of mines to sue tabloid for libel

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)