Journalist groups attack 'Trust' magazine verdict

Journalist groups attack 'Trust' magazine verdict

Emphasizing a failure to use the Press Law in a libel trial
against Trust financial and legal magazine, two journalists'
organizations blasted on Friday the Central Jakarta District
Court's verdict, which was issued on Thursday.

The Jakarta chapter of the Association of Independent
Journalists said in a statement that the verdict, based on
considerations relating to the Civil Code, was another abuse of
justice and press freedom.

"The use of legislation other than Law No. 40/1999 on the
press has become a new threat to press freedom ... the South
Jakarta District Court earlier fined Tempo magazine US$1 million
after it lost a libel case filed by businessman Tommy Winata.

"We demand the Supreme Court stipulate the use of the Press
Law in cases related to the media and journalists," stated head
of the organization's legal advocacy unit Ulin Na'im Yusron.

Trust was fined Rp 1 billion ($114,942) for discrediting
businessman John Hamenda and his company PT Petindo Perkasa in an
article titled, A gang of thieves hits state Bank Negara
Indonesia (BNI) published in its Oct. 1-7, 2003, edition.

The article was made after the police arrested the businessman
for his alleged involvement in a bogus credit scheme at the bank
that caused Rp 1.7 trillion in state losses.

Hamenda had demanded Rp 2.22 trillion in compensation for
material and nonmaterial losses.

Director of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) in
Jakarta Lukas Luwarso sent an open letter to the court,
criticizing the legal considerations used in the verdict.

"In contemporary journalism work, printing the full names of
the subjects mentioned in an article is allowed. Meanwhile,
obtaining a confidential document of a bank internal audit report
in investigative reporting is legal if it is in the public
interest." -- JP