'Indonesian Observer' suspends operations

JAKARTA (JP): The country's oldest English daily, Indonesian Observer, has currently frozen its operations, as a result of financial difficulties.

It is the first time the Observer has had to resort to the temporary freezing of operations, since it was established in 1955, its chief editor, Taufik Darusman, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

"The primary reason? The printer has just refused to print the newspaper. There are certain financial obligations that we need to honor, which to date, we have not," said Taufik, who has worked for the newspaper for a total of eight years.

"It is not that we are closing down, just freezing our operations temporarily."

He added that the daily's operations would be discontinued for an indefinite period.

"Soon, we are scheduled to hold a shareholders' meeting ... from there we will decide what steps to take next," Taufik said.

Their last edition, VOL XLI No. 10,434, was published on Wednesday, at 16 pages.

Publisher Peter F. Gontha, part-owner of PT Datacom Asia, could not be reached for comment on the matter.

A source noted that Peter had reportedly warned the paper to make efforts to somehow try and increase the daily's circulation, or suffer the consequences.

Taufik noted that the daily, which employs about 100 editorial and noneditorial staff, enjoyed its heyday in the mid-1980s when the number of foreigners nationwide was at "its highest level".

"We have informed our employees that this situation is temporary ... they have decided to stick with us," Taufik said.

Burhanuddin Muhammad Diah, who had published the oldest national daily, Merdeka, and his wife, Herawati Diah, first published the Observer in 1955 to mark the first Asia-Africa Conference, in Bandung, West Java.

The second major English daily,The Indonesia Times, was first published in 1974. The daily, which tended to support former president B.J. Habibie, suspended its operation in the late 1990s following his failure to secure the presidential seat. It has not resumed publication until today. (ylt)