No libel found on Texmaco vs 'Tempo' case, expert says

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An expert witness testified in the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday that there was nothing libelous in over 50 articles run by Tempo weekly about the country's largest textile company, the PT Texmaco Jaya Group.

R.H. Siregar, the deputy chairman of the Press Council, said that in covering the financial woes afflicting Texmaco and the company's owner, Marimutu Sinivasan, the magazine had followed journalistic principles.

"Tempo did not make the story up, it only reported facts that were public knowledge," he said.

He said that in publishing over 50 articles from January to April, the magazine was exercising its social control function and promoting the interests of the general public.

"When the weekly ran the articles on Texmaco's huge debt to the government, it aimed to inform the public that this was their tax money being misused," he said.

Siregar said Marimutu's decision to file a lawsuit against Tempo was unjustified under the press law.

"By law, Marimutu has a right to counter the articles and to file a complaint with the Press Council," he said.

Marimutu, who has resigned his post at Texmaco, filed a libel suit against the weekly for publishing articles that, he alleged, tarnished the image of him and the company.

He has demanded that Tempo pay him US$51 million in damages.

The businessman also filed a civil suit against Kompas daily seeking $151 million in damages.

Marimutu has accused the country's leading daily of carrying out a systematic campaign to assassinate his character.

Experts have said the suits could set a bad precedent for the press and its function as an agent of social control.

Presiding judge Sylvester Djuma adjourned the trial until Oct. 16.