Rift rocks 'Sriwijaya Post'

Rift rocks 'Sriwijaya Post'

JAKARTA: The management of Sriwijaya Post, which is based in the South Sumatra capital of Palembang, is rocked by a managerial conflict.

The conflicting camps, General Manager Fauzi Achmad and Chief Editor Hendrowiyono, have accused each other of hiring street hoodlums in their bids to force their will.

The conflict stems from the confusion in the shares of the newspaper. The newspaper's employees were unhappy with the inclusion of "strangers" in the list of shareholders.

The conflict burst into the open when Fauzi fired a journalist he said had a past link with an "outlawed organization", a common reference to the Indonesian Communist Party.

Antara did not make it clear how Fauzi and Hendrowiyono become embroiled in a personal conflict but it said that both had been involved in physical clashes.

The problem within the newspaper, which is partly owned by the leading media group Kompas-Gramedia, has been reported to the local police. (pan)