Media analysts lament court ruling against 'Koran Tempo'
Media analysts lament court ruling against 'Koran Tempo'
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Media analysts questioned the South Jakarta District Court's
decision to order the Koran Tempo newspaper to apologize for what
the court ruled was a libelous article against businessman
Marimutu Sinivasan.
The verdict should not have been reached as the court failed
to specify the articles considered to have been defamatory, the
argue.
Ignatius Haryanto of the Institute for Press Freedom and
Development Studies (LSPP) and Misbahuddin Gasma of Legal Aid for
the Press (LBH Pers) said there were some peculiarities in the
ruling.
"The ruling is weird because it fails to specify the articles
deemed to have been defamatory," Ignatius told The Jakarta Post
on Thursday.
He said the articles published by Koran Tempo had quoted
releases and data from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency
(IBRA).
According to Ignatius, Sinivasan and Texmaco should have filed
a lawsuit against IBRA instead of the daily.
Similarly, Misbahuddin said the verdict against Koran Tempo
clearly showed an increasing threat to press freedom.
The panel of judges on Tuesday found Koran Tempo guilty of
running libelous articles from January 2003 through April 2003
and ordered it to apologize in national electronic and print
media for three consecutive days.
The newspaper was also ordered to withdraw the defamatory
articles. If the daily fails to do so, it will be fined Rp 10
million (US$1,176) per day until it complies with the court
order.
Lawyers for Koran Tempo said they would appeal the verdict.
This is the latest anti-press verdict since similar verdicts
were handed down against Matra magazine and Rakyat Merdeka daily.
The chief editor of Rakyat Merdeka, Karim Paputungan, was
sentenced to five months in jail in September for insulting House
of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung, while the daily's
executive editor, Supratman, was given a six months sentence in
October for defaming President Megawati Soekarnoputri Both
sentences were suspended.
Meanwhile, Hinca IP Panjaitan from the Indonesia Media Law and
Policy Center (IMLPC) urged members of the public to use their
right to reply if they objected to a media report.
This could prevent a court from holding an article libelous,
he added.
By resorting to the courts, Hinca said members of the public
would not get satisfaction as the court process usually took a
long time.
"It does not solve the problem. The public should use their
right to give explanations or invite the Press Council to mediate
in a dispute," he told the Post.
He denied claims that the right to reply mechanism was
ineffective.
Citing a dispute between the former chief of the Army's
Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Lt. Gen. Djaja Suparman and
the Jawa Pos daily, Hinca said the case was settled after the
daily published a long reply from Djaja.
Djaja had earlier accused Jawa Pos of publishing a libelous
report that implicated him in the Oct. 12 Bali bombings, which
killed at least 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.