Police question TV, radio directors

Police question TV, radio directors

JAKARTA (JP): Police questioned three news directors from two
private television stations and a radio station on Tuesday as
part of the investigation into the recording of a telephone
conversation believed to be between President B.J. Habibie and
Attorney General A.M. Ghalib.

The three, who were summoned as witnesses to the Kebayoran
Baru police headquarters in South Jakarta, were Chrys Kelana of
RCTI, Azkarmin Zaini of ANteve and Susan Masmir of Sonora.

Police also summoned a representative of SCTV, but he did not
arrive.

Meanwhile, Habibie reiterated on Tuesday that the tapping of a
private telephone conversation explicitly constituted a criminal
act and was also a violation of human rights.

"That is a crime... intellectual crime. How can we improve
democratization and reform if such an act is tolerated," he said
at the State Palace in a reception for North Sulawesi community
leaders.

"It seems to be a trivial case, but if it is tolerated, that
is the beginning of the end," he said, saying that only Armed
Forces (ABRI) detectives with consent from the ABRI commander
were permitted to monitor telephone communications for national
security reasons.

Minister of Defense and Security/ABRI Commander Gen. Wiranto
said on Tuesday the ABRI leadership had never given any
instructions to tap the President's telephone communications.

"There have been no orders from the ABRI leadership, including
me, to tap the telephone conversations of the President," he
said.

He admitted that it was the responsibility of presidential
security guards to safeguard the President's security, his
activities and all facilities in the presidential office.
However, it was quite difficult to protect telephones from being
tapped, he said.

Both Chrys Kelana of RCTI and Azkarmin of ANteve said after
the police interrogation on Tuesday that the questions focused on
how their stations came to be in possession of the cassettes
containing the conversation believed to be between Habibie and
Ghalib, and also on considerations for its dissemination.

"But I think journalists have the right not to disclose their
source to the police except in court. I'll only reveal it in the
courtroom," Chrys told reporters after the two-hour questioning.

Azkarmin also stressed that the public had the right to know
what was happening behind the government's slow investigation
into former president Soeharto's illegal wealth.

ANteve aired the whole conversation to prevent any
misinterpretation by the public, Azkarmin said,

"If we picked only a small part of the conversation, we feared
the interpretation may have been negative," he said.

However, Susan said she had no idea why police summoned her as
her radio station did not broadcast any part of the recorded
conversation.

"I'm here because I want to ask police why they summoned us,"
Susan, who was accompanied by her lawyer, Budi Carolus, said.

She said she was given 15 questions, mostly about the source
of the cassettes.

"I just answered 'I don't know' because the truth was Sonora
didn't know anything (about the issue being investigated)," she
said.

Police said they were focusing their probe into a possible
violation of Articles 14 and 15 of Law No. 1/1946 on the
dissemination of false information or news which stirs public
unrest. If convicted, the charge carries a maximum two year
prison term.

Separately, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar M.
Sianipar said the questioning of the television and radio news
directors was expected to establish greater cooperation between
the police and public to conclude the tapping incident.

"We hope that they (the witnesses) will cooperate with our
police detectives to unravel the case as soon as possible," he
said.

He said police would first try to locate the source of the
cassettes in the hope that this will lead to the suspects.

Habibie did not deny having the conversation, but ordered an
immediate investigation. Ghalib, however, denied the conversation
ever took place.

When asked about the authenticity of the recorded voices,
Togar declined to answer, but said the investigation was still
underway.

Although the authenticity of the recordings has not been
officially confirmed, a source close to Habibie said on Monday
the President had confirmed the recorded voice was his. (emf/rms)