'Tempo' acquitted of felonious act

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court threw out on Wednesday a civil lawsuit filed by youth organization Pemuda Panca Marga (PPM) against Tempo magazine, ruling that the suit was "not grounded in law".

PPM, whose members are the sons and daughters of army veterans, claimed that Tempo's chief editor Bambang Harymurti, its journalist Ahmad Taufik, and publisher Tempo Inti Media, had damaged its reputation by printing two articles in June 2003 that referred to them as a "gang", "mercenaries" and "children of former soldiers".

The articles, one written by Taufik and the other an unsigned opinion piece, described the ransacking of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) office in May.

The articles reported that 100 people dressed in PPM's military-style fatigues carried out the attack.

Suripto, a member of the panel of judges, said that the heart of the case addressed the question: "Did the articles result in any damage to (the reputation of) the plaintiff?"

"The articles did not reach the level of insult or damage to (the plaintiff's) reputation," he said reading the points of consideration behind the court's decision.

Presiding judge Cicut Sutiarso said, while reading out the verdict: "Therefore the defendants have not been proven to have committed a felonious act that resulted in damage to the plaintiff's reputation."

With the decision that ended the six-month long civil trial, the judges dismissed PPM's demands that included a two-year suspension of Tempo's operations, public apologies to be run for three consecutive days in at least 30 media, and punitive damages of Rp 10.5 billion (US$ 1 million).

Instead, the judges ordered PPM to pay the Rp 419,000 court fees.

"We will definitely appeal the verdict," said Danu Asmara, PPM's lawyer, who added that the group members consisted of "many government employees and members of the House of Representatives".

A lawyer from Legal Aid for the Press, which was representing Tempo, Misbahuddin Gasma, said that the verdict proved their assertion that "the articles were standard pieces of journalism."

The same court threw out the libel suit filed by PPM against the magazine over the publication of the same articles, as a separate panel of judges determined that the charges were obscure. (002)