Rights Commission willing to help banned magazines

Rights Commission willing to help banned magazines

JAKARTA (JP) The National Commission on Human Rights is
extending an offer of assistance to solve the national
controversy triggered by the closure of the Tempo, Editor and
DeTIK weeklies.

The commission, led by its Secretary General Baharuddin Lopa,
met with Tempo chief editor Goenawan Mohamad and a number of
journalists from the now-defunct magazine yesterday.

Also present at the meeting were the Commission's members
Miriam Budiardjo, Marzuki Darusman, Albert Hasibuan, Roekmini and
Charles Himawan.

Lopa proposed that the government and the press, especially
representatives of the three ill-fated weeklies, open a dialog to
resolve the problems.

Goenawan welcomed the suggestion, saying: "I'm always open for
a dialog, anytime."

However, he pointed out that the banning of the three
publications concerned not only the press and the government but
also readers.

"The people's right to information is also at stake," he said.

Lopa said that the Commission was very concerned with the
government's move to revoke the publishing licenses of the three
magazines', saying that it had violated the right of expression
as guaranteed by the Constitution.

He also questioned the legal basis of the government's
decision to close down the publications. He said the decree from
the ministry of information contradicted higher laws, especially
the 1982 press law which rejects press censorship.

Acknowledgement

However, he acknowledged that the government has the freedom
to take any action it deems necessary to safeguard the existence
of the state whenever it is in jeopardy.

However, he did not say if he thought the national stability
was at risk when the government clamped down on the media.

No street protests against the press bans were staged in
Jakarta yesterday. However, some 150 students from various
universities in Bandung staged a protest in the town's Gasibu
square Thursday evening.

They held a mass prayer and then released dozens of balloons
into the air as a sign of their concern over the revocation of
the publishing licenses of the three news magazines.

"Because we do not know what else to do to make our protests
heard, we choose this peaceful way," said Andri, a student of the
Parahyangan University.

A number of journalists, community leaders and common people
from East Timor, including Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo,
also expressed their deep concern over the press bans in a
statement yesterday, a copy of which was made available to The
Jakarta Post.

Similar expressions of concern also came from the Women Group
for Press Freedom and the Japanese NGO Network on Indonesia. (11)