'Jawa Pos' journalists intimidated

SURABAYA (JP): About 80 members of the government-sponsored National Discipline Campaign was still occupying the foyer of the Jawa Pos editorial office yesterday to protest "biased reporting" of this week's labor strike.

The group, which has been occupying the foyer since Thursday, vowed to stay on until reporter Sholihuddin and chief editor Solichin Hidayat were presented to them.

The daily's report on Thursday alleged that the discipline campaigners had been paid by a certain institution to hold a counter demonstration to the earlier student-led labor strike.

The labor protests held on Monday and Tuesday were met with a harsh response from the military. More than two dozen students were injured and detained.

The discipline campaigners object to the Jawa Pos's photograph of tanks as a military show of force in the run-up to next year's election. The picture was run side by side with a photo of the pro-democracy demonstration.

They demanded that Jawa Pos withdraw all of the estimated 300,000 copies that it had distributed throughout Indonesia on Thursday.

Solichin said he regretted the campaigners' means of settling the problem. He asked them to write their version of the event and said that the daily would be glad to publish it.

More than 50 employees at the newspaper did not leave the office on Thursday for security reasons. (27/pan)