Pertamina withdraws complaint against The Jakarta Post
Pertamina withdraws complaint against The Jakarta Post
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
State oil company PT Pertamina withdrew on Tuesday its lawsuit
against The Jakarta Post after both sides met to discuss and
clear up the misunderstanding arising from the daily's June 23
editorial.
Pertamina's lawyer Lucas said he submitted a letter to the
National Police Headquarters on Tuesday morning informing them of
their wish to withdraw the lawsuit.
"Everything has been clarified after we met with people from
The Jakarta Post today. All problems have been settled and we
have withdrawn the report," said Lucas.
The Jakarta Post offered to meet the Pertamina directors to
get a direct clarification on the giant state oil company's
policy of selling two supertankers, which have been a source of
public controversy for the past month, the newspaper's editors
said on Monday.
Pertamina President Ariffi Nawawi and three other members of
the board of directors on Monday morning filed a complaint with
the National Police, saying that the newspaper had slandered and
tarnished their reputation in an editorial piece which appeared
last Wednesday.
The editorial, entitled Tentacles of corruption commented on
the controversy over the sale of two Very Large Crude Carriers
(VLCCs) which Pertamina had ordered from a South Korean
shipbuilding company.
Lucas SH and Partners law firm, on behalf of PT Pertamina
directors, sent on Friday, July 25 a summons to The Jakarta Post
demanding than an apology for the editorial piece be published by
10 a.m. Monday to correct and revise the content of the article.
The Jakarta Post, in a statement on Monday, made it clear that
it had written to the Pertamina directors and their lawyers,
offering to meet and clarify the situation. The letter was sent
by special couriers, and received in their respective offices
around 7 a.m. on Monday.
"The letter invited the Directors and Commissioners of PT
Pertamina to meet with us to clarify matters over The Jakarta
Post's June 23 editorial which commented on the sale of
Pertamina's two giant tankers.
"Since Pertamina's directors decided to file their complaint
with the police anyway, The Jakarta Post on Monday appointed
lawyers Denny Kailimang and Todung Mulya Lubis to represent it,"
the statement read.
The newspaper had also decided on Monday to take up the matter
of the allegations of corruption with the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK) at a meeting planned at the latter's office on
Tuesday afternoon, but that was dropped after the meeting with
Pertamina on Tuesday morning.
"The editorial by The Jakarta Post was a compilation of all
news and analysis that has been reported regarding the
controversy over the sale of the giant tankers by Pertamina. The
editorial is part of the (newspaper's) function in building a
culture of greater transparency and accountability that has
become our common commitment," the statement said.
In the letter to Pertamina, The Jakarta Post's Editor-in-Chief
Raymond Toruan said the editorial essentially expressed the
newspaper's "principal thinking in carrying out our professional
duties; as a member of the press, we will continue to be loyal
and pay attention to information and issues that are of concern
to public interests, and are valuable to the life of the
community, the nation and the state."
Lucas told reporters after filing the complaint with the
police that the editorial "gives the impression that Pertamina
directors had lied, and were always being dishonest, and this led
to this controversy that has not been resolved to this day."
In response to a reporter's question, Lucas acknowledged that
other newspapers and magazines had been reporting the controversy
of the sale of the two tankers by Pertamina, but he made a
distinction between news reports and an editorial.
"We don't have any problem with the news reports," he said.
"The Jakarta Post wrote it in the context of an editorial. So,
it's very different."