Hundreds protest against press bans
JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of journalists and employees of three news magazines marched to the Ministry of Information yesterday, demanding the government to lift the ban against their publications.
The protesters, who also demanded a public apology from the government for its decision to revoke the magazines' publishing licenses, were joined by activists, members of the intellectual community and students, bolstering their number to over 1,000.
The contingent from Tempo, one of the three weeklies that lost its license early this week, was led by its chief editor Fikri Jufri and Zulkifli Lubis, one of its directors. The other two magazines affected by the ban are Editor and DeTIK.
Adnan Buyung Nasution, the prominent human rights lawyer, was there again yesterday to lend his support. Buyung had led the protest rally at the same place on Wednesday but at the time his requests to meet with officials of the ministry were turned down.
In contrast with the time before, senior officials of the ministry agreed to meet with the demonstrator's representatives.
Director General of Press and Graphics Subrata, who signed the decree revoking the magazines' permits on behalf of Minister Harmoko, met with about a dozen of the protest leaders, including Buyung, legislator Sri Bintang Pamungkas, and lawyers Mulyana W. Kusumah and H.J.C. Princen and representatives of the magazines.
Subrata assured the protest leaders that he would convey their messages to higher authorities. He pointed out however that the revocation of the license was in compliance with all procedures.
Ignorance
Tempo lost its license because it ignored repeated government warnings about its reports in recent weeks, DeTIK was banned because it had been reporting political events in contravention of its permit as a criminal and detective magazine and Editor was faulted because it had been managed by people other than those stipulated in its permit.
The ban against the three weeklies has raised doubts among some journalists, politicians and intellectuals about the government's commitment towards political openness despite official assurances that it will continue.
Yesterday more organizations, at home and abroad, joined in condemning the ban. Besides Jakarta, there were also protests in Bandung, Salatiga and Surabaya.
To the employees of the three magazines, the ban also touched the bread and butter question. The jobs of 700 workers, including journalists, are now on the line because the revocation of the publishing licenses virtually means their closure.
In his first public comment since the ban, Minister of Information Harmoko on Wednesday evening appealed to everyone to think about it. "I won't make further comment at the moment. Let's accept the fact and then look inside ourselves," he told journalists after opening a meeting of activists of Golkar, which he chairs.
There were brief skirmishes and scuffles between security officers and the protesters during the demonstration in front of the Ministry of Information office but they were quickly overcome. There were no reports of injury.
While the proceedings where restrained, the anger and frustration of the crowd spilled over into emotional outbursts.
Tense moment
The only tense moments came when the security forces, under the guidance of Central Jakarta police Chief Dadang Kurnida, decided at 10:45 that it was time to move the demonstrators across the street into the nearby Monas park.
As the line of troops armed with riot shields and rattan canes pushed into the crowd, 20 or 30 young demonstrators resisted, screaming "this is a free country," and matters quickly deteriorated into heated pushing and shoving.
In Bandung, the police blocked scores of protesting students and journalists who wanted to march from the Bandung Islamic University to the provincial legislative council.
The security forces seized dozens of posters that the demonstrators unfurled as they staged a sit-in under the watchful eyes of security officers who demanded a permit for the protest.
Like their colleagues elsewhere, they demanded that the government cancel its decision to close the journals, charging that it was meant to kill democracy.
In Salatiga, some 300 students and prominent intellectuals of the Satya Wacana Christian University staged a rally.
Addressing the crowd were outspoken intellectuals like George Aditjondro, Nico L. Kana, Arief Budiman, Ariel Heryanto. All condemned the closing down of the newspapers.
They said the government should have resorted to legal procedures if it believed that the newspapers had violated any law as it charged. "The closure of the publications means that the government leaves many innocent people, from the journalists to delivery boys, to live in misery."
Condemnation also came from the New York-based human rights organization, Human Rights Watch/Asia, which called the clampdown on the press a violation of freedom of expression.
"By this action, the Indonesian government has not only effectively killed three of the most widely read and courageous publications in the country; it has also killed its own carefully-constructed image of openness," said Sydney Jones, executive director of Human Rights Watch/Asia. (pan/09/dmy/pet)