Press freedom again under threat, observers avow

Press freedom again under threat, observers avow

A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Observers warned the nation on Thursday that press freedom was
back under threat, despite the downfall of authoritarian
president Soeharto six years ago.

The media has come increasingly under threat with state
officials and businesspeople lodging criminal and civil charges
against media enterprises without taking the Press Law into
account.

Former chairman of the Press Council Atmakusumah Astraatmadja
said charges against journalists of Rakyat Merdeka newspaper and
Tempo magazine and a court verdict against Koran Tempo daily
constituted intimidation and undermined press freedom.

"All that forces journalists into self-censorship. The media
can no longer dare to speak out for public interests," he told a
seminar titled: Press Freedom under Threat.

Atmakusumah blamed the government for failing to protect
journalists covering the war against separatist rebels in the
troubled province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

A senior RCTI reporter, Ersa Siregar, was killed last December
by soldiers in a gunfight with Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels
who abducted him in June last year. His cameraman, Fery Santoro
who was also taken hostage along with him, has not been released.

Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Rector Azyumardi
Azra concurred, saying that if this trend continued it could
endanger press freedom.

"The Tempo case is a shock. It has threatened press freedom,"
he told the same seminar.

Last month, the South Jakarta District Court ruled against
Koran Tempo and ordered it to pay a US$1 million fine to
businessman Tomy Winata who brought a libel case against the
newspaper.

In December, the same court ordered Koran Tempo to publicly
apologize to the owner of the ailing Texmaco group, Marimutu
Sinivasan, who filed a libel suit over a series of critical
articles on his business empire carried by the newspaper.

The same court had also sentenced journalists of Rakyat
Merdeka to several months in prison for articles considered
defamatory against President Megawati Soekarnoputri and House of
Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

Similarly, senior lawyer Nono Anwar Makarim lashed out at
state officials and businesspeople for taking the media to court
by brushing aside the Press Law.

They should use the Press Law in handling their disputes with
the media instead of criminalizing the press cases by directly
bringing journalists or their companies to court, he said.

Nono argued that courts could impose unlimited fines on media
enterprises or journalists charged both under the Criminal Code
(KUHP) and the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP).

"Huge fines could kill media companies, and later press
freedom. Fines should not lead to the bankruptcy of the media
industry" he added.

But based on the Press Law, print or electronic media can be
fined a maximum of Rp 500 million (US$58,823) should they refuse
to publish apologies and objections of readers.

Meanwhile, Tomy Winata's lawyer Desmond J. Mahesa urged the
public not to question the amount of the fine, but instead the
substance of the Koran Tempo case, in which an article linked his
client with last year's massive fire in the Tanah Abang market,
Central Jakarta.

"Tempo should have provided the facts if there was any such
proposal from Tomy to rebuild the market," Desmond told
Thursday's seminar.

He said he refused to use the Press Law, claiming that it did
not regulate defamation cases as stipulated in the Criminal Code.

Desmond said his client also rejected his right of reply over
what he considered to be Tempo's defamatory articles, as
recommended by the Press Law.

The lawyer said Tomy also refused to involve the Press Council
in a mediation to settle the case because it clearly favored the
newspaper.

"Since the beginning, Pak Atmakusumah commented that Tempo's
report was in keeping with journalistic code of ethics. How can
we trust such a partial press council," he said.