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)