'Koran Tempo' found guilty of libel

'Koran Tempo' found guilty of libel

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Press freedom, once again, has been dealt another severe blow
after the panel of judges at the South Jakarta District Court
ruled on Tuesday in favor of businessman Marimutu Sinivasan of
the Texmaco group in a defamation suit he filed against Koran
Tempo newspaper.

The judges found the daily guilty of running libelous articles
from January 2003 to April 2003 and ordered it to make an apology
in national electronic and printed media for three consecutive
days.

The daily was also ordered to withdraw all articles considered
defamatory. Should Koran Tempo fail to comply with the ruling, it
will be fined Rp 10 million (US$1,176) per day until it does so.

"The articles in question were tendentious, provocative and
have tarnished the image of Marimutu Sinivasan as a trusted
businessman. The articles went against the religious code, the
presumption of innocence principle and decency as stipulated in
Article 5 of the Press Law No. 40/1999," presiding judge I Gde
Putra Jadnya said in the verdict.

The court, however, turned down the plaintiff's demand for a
total of US$51 million in compensation. It said there was no
definite connection between the articles and the amount of
damages suffered by the Texmaco group.

Lawyers for Koran Tempo will appeal the verdict.

"The ruling shows that the judges just do not have a grasp of
what a free press is all about. The court has become a graveyard
for press freedom as many journalists have been prosecuted,"
lawyer Atmajaya Salim said.

Previously, the court sentenced executive editor of Rakyat
Merdeka daily, Supratman, to six months in jail for publishing
articles that insulted President Megawati Soekarnoputri and its
chief editor, Karim Paputungan, to five months in jail for
insulting House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

The much-awaited verdict came after a five-month trial since
the suit was filed in June 2003. Seven expert witnesses have
testified in the trial, including Press Council deputy chairman
R.H. Siregar and banking expert Sutan Remy Syahdeni.

The expert witnesses repeatedly said that when running the
articles, Koran Tempo had stayed within its role as a social
control mechanism to fulfill the public interests.

Sinivasan filed a civil lawsuit against the daily for several
articles that were critical of him. He claimed that continuous
publication of the articles caused 18 companies under the Texmaco
group to suffer from financial losses.

In the articles, Koran Tempo said that Sinivasan, who resigned
from his post at Texmaco in October, still owed the government an
estimated Rp 26 trillion in bailout funds, which were disbursed
in the wake of financial crisis in the late 1990s.

The daily also reported that the businessman had been involved
in convoluted and highly suspicious dealings with government
officials.

The reports were said to be based on interviews from the daily
reporters with Texmaco inside sources and press releases provided
by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency and the Cabinet's
Financial Sector Policy Committee.

In a similar defamation suit filed by Sinivasan, the Central
Jakarta District Court had ruled on Nov. 27 in favor of Tempo
magazine. Judges decided that the defamation suit against the
magazine was invalid and stated that Sinivasan and Texmaco were
trying to obstruct press freedom.

The court, however, approved the out-of-the-court settlement
between Sinivasan and Kompas cofounder Jakob Oetama and chief
editor Soeryopratomo in a defamation civil suit filed by the
businessman.

In the jointly-signed letter of agreement, Sinivasan had
agreed on Nov. 14 to unconditionally terminate the civil suit
against the daily.