'Matra' editor receives 5-month suspended term
'Matra' editor receives 5-month suspended term
JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court sentenced on
Thursday chief editor of Matra monthly Robertus Riantiarno to a
five-month suspended jail term for publishing semipornograhic
pictures in its June and July editions last year.
"By publishing the pictures, the defendant violated Article
282 of the Criminal Code," said presiding judge T.H.S Pardede
during the hearing at the district court.
"The 1966 press law also rules that the chief editor of a
publication is responsible for its editorial content," he added.
Present at the one-hour hearing, which started at noon, were
prosecutor Sulaiman Hajaratin and the defendant's team of
lawyers, led by Todung Mulya Lubis.
Also present were members of popular theater group Teater
Koma: Nungky Kusumastuti, Jajang C. Noer and Ratna Riantiarno,
who is also Riatiarno's wife. Riantiarno also leads the group.
Riantiarno will not see the inside of a jail unless he commits
a criminal offense within the eight-month probation period.
The 50-year-old defendant was taken to court in August last
year after the magazine, which calls itself a male magazine,
published two suggestive pictures of popular actresses Sarah
Azhari and Inneke Koesherawati on its June and July covers,
respectively, last year.
In the June edition, Sarah was sitting with her legs crossed
and her arms covering her breasts.
Inneke posed in a similar fashion. The only difference was
that Inneke was photographed from the side.
Judge Pardede said the original pictures of the two actresses
were altered to make the women look nude. "The altered pictures
were not shown to the two actresses."
"The actresses then lodged complaints with the magazine,
demanding the magazine clarify that they were not nude in the
pictures," said Pardede.
The magazine announced in its August 1999 edition that the
women were not nude when the pictures were taken, he said.
The judge said the pictures had violated moral norms, but the
defendant insisted the pictures were works of art.
"The magazine is read by people from all walks of life, not
only by certain groups of people," he said.
Todung immediately responded that he would appeal the verdict.
Todung said the panel of judges had not been objective and had
failed to comprehensively observed the case before deciding the
verdict.
"Those were artistic photographs. About 90 percent of the
magazine's content is not pornographic.
"Judging from its content, the magazine educates people about
sex without sensationalism," he told reporters after the hearing,
adding that many other publications exploited sex in a cruder
manner than Matra but had escaped legal sanction.
Col. Saleh Saaf, a senior staffer at the National Police's
General Information Division, denied that the police had targeted
only Matra.
"The police also targeted other media publishing pornographic
stories and pictures, not only Matra. The national police
headquarters has been investigating and summoning Wow weekly
tabloid since a week ago for allegedly publishing vulgar and
suggestive pictures," he told The Jakarta Post.
A police officer at the South Jakarta Police station, however,
said the police were in a dilemma about dealing with such issues.
"Once we take stern actions, we're condemned for breaching the
concept of a free press. Even stern measures sometimes bring
about social unrest, like what happened during a recent police
raid on pirated video compact discs (VCDs) in Glodok, West
Jakarta.
"But if we do nothing, we are condemned by people for
condoning pornography," said Maj. Ahmad Alwi, head of the
station's police detectives.
Meanwhile, law and communications expert Andi Muis said the
term "pornography" was disputable.
"People have their own perceptions of the term. Therefore, the
presence of an independent and respected Press Council is badly
needed to assess whether a publication should be categorized as
pornographic," he said. (asa)