'Tempo' closure is baseless: Witnesses

'Tempo' closure is baseless: Witnesses

JAKARTA (JP): The government's decision to revoke the
publishing license of Tempo weekly was groundless, two former
editors of the current affairs magazine said yesterday.

Putu Setia and Bambang Bujono were testifying during a hearing
at the Jakarta State Administrative Court on Tempo's lawsuit
against Minister of Information Harmoko's decision to revoke the
magazine's license last June.

"I did not see and was not aware of any statement explicitly
describing the reasons for the revocation of our magazine," Putu
said responding to a question from Judge Benjamin Mangkoedilaga.

"The ministerial decree did not specifically state which
stories were deemed offensive," Bambang said.

Tempo lost its publishing license, which virtually meant its
closure, in June last year. The Ministry of Information said the
magazine's proprietor repeatedly ignored warnings from the
government about its editorial content.

Now Harmoko is facing four separate lawsuits from former Tempo
editors, employees and even readers. Two suits were filed at the
administrative court and two others at a district court. All
contested the legality of the minister's decision to revoke the
licenses.

Tempo's former employees have parted ways. A group of them
have gone on to publish a new magazine called Gatra with
financing from timber tycoon Mohammad (Bob) Hasan.

Bambang said that as managing editor, he never received any
written warnings, nor was he informed of any warnings from the
government before the day of the revocation.

And as a member of the editorial board, he said he was not
aware of any meeting by the Press Council regarding the
revocation of the publishing license.

Putu said the revocation came as a shock to the magazine's
editors. "The minister should have issued a first warning and
then followed that with a stern warning before closing the
magazine," he said.

As a matter of policy, Tempo had always followed the
regulations and directions set out by the government regarding
news stories. "We discontinued publishing articles which were
deemed sensitive," he said.

As an example, he cited the time when Tempo ran a story about
a Hindu sect in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. He said Tempo
never received any copy of the record the government reportedly
writes up for every press publication.

This report, along with various other documents, have been
presented by Harmoko's lawyers in his defense.

Putu also underlined that in the absence of any clear
censorship guidelines, editors could not know for sure which
stories could be published and which ones could not. (imn)