Goenawan goes on with court battle

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)