Taxi drivers protest untrue report

Taxi drivers protest untrue report

JAKARTA (JP): Some 2,000 taxi drivers of Citra taxi company staged a peaceful protest outside the Berita Buana daily's building in Pulogadung, East Jakarta, on Saturday to demand a retraction of an erroneous report about a robbery by one of them and a published apology for the mistake.

The drivers had been stung by a report in the daily's Friday (Oct. 30) edition, which said that a Citra taxi driver had robbed a passenger, Antara reported.

According to Citra's operations manager, Halmajaya, the drivers went to the newspaper's office to protest the erroneous story and demanded that the daily apologize for its publication which, they said, had damaged their good reputation.

"The drivers will continue their action here until this afternoon daily comes out because they want to make sure the apology is really published," he said.

He said his company and the Berita Buana daily had agreed that the apology would be published in the paper's Saturday edition together with follow-up news containing a correction of the erroneous report.

The deputy chief editor of Berita Buana, Raja Parlindungan Pane, told reporters the daily's management had already met a delegation of the demonstrating drivers and agreed to apologize for its mistaken report.

Pane said he had also ordered the daily's sub-editor and reporter concerned to produce a new version of the story in collaboration with Citra taxi company.

The protesting drivers ended their picket peacefully after ascertaining that the daily's Saturday edition carried the apology they had demanded and a follow-up report.