Man on trial for beating reporter

Man on trial for beating reporter

CURUP, Bengkulu: The local district court began on Saturday the trial of a businessman accused of assaulting a reporter of the Lampung Post daily newspaper.

Antara reported yesterday that the defendant, identified by his initials HN, was charged in court with beating Muhammad Guruh Indrawan on June 20 and causing serious injury.

Prosecutors said the incident occurred after Indrawan wrote an article suggesting irregularities in a road construction project for which HN was the contractor.

Indrawan said after the hearing on Saturday that he had been intimidated, as well as offered money by the defendant, to drop the charges in the run-up to the trial.

"I want this trial to continue because the beating of a journalist is a show of disrespect toward the journalistic profession," he was quoted as saying. (emb)