Goenawan goes on with court battle

JAKARTA (JP): Senior journalist Goenawan Mohamad yesterday pressed on with his lawsuit against Minister of Information Harmoko over the banning of the Tempo magazine, stressing that the action had not only denied him freedom of expression guaranteed by the constitution, but also a considerable income.

Goenawan's lawyers sought to shoot down every argument presented by Harmoko at the Jakarta Administrative Court to have the lawsuit dropped.

Last week, Harmoko's lawyers said that if anyone was to sue the minister for the banning of Tempo, it should have been PT Grafitti Pers, the company that published the weekly magazine.

But Goenawan, through his lawyers, insisted yesterday that he has every right to sue the minister.

Goenawan, the founding chief editor of Tempo, was last registered as a member of the board of directors.

"Our client suffered a loss of income from his monthly salary and annual dividend of the magazine's profit," Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, one of Goenawan's lawyers, said.

Harmoko revoked the publishing license of Tempo in June saying that the magazine had repeatedly ignored warnings from the government about its editorial content.

Besides Goenawan, a group of former Tempo employees have also filed suit against Harmoko at the same court. Both suits are being heard simultaneously.

Trimoelja also disputed Harmoko's lawyers' claim that the State Administrative Court does not have the authority to evaluate the contents of the 1945 Constitution.

"The plaintiff never asked the Court to change or evaluate the 1945 Constitution," Trimoelja said. "He only claimed that he has lost his rights of freedom of expression," which the constitution guarantees.

In the lawsuit, Goenawan is demanding that the government take back its decision to close down Tempo in the absence of any clear and objective reason for the revocation of the license.

The suit pointed out that the magazine was closed down without giving the proprietors a chance to defend themselves.

It also challenged the government to prove that Tempo had been such a threat to national stability that it had to be closed down.

According to the suit the ministerial decree did not clearly mention the articles and date of publication which led to the banning of Tempo.

Some of former Tempo employees and journalists have since gone on to start a new magazine called Gatra with financing from timber tycoon Mohammad (Bob) Hasan. A number of others have applied for a license for a new magazine. (imn)