'Tempo' files appeal over Tomy civil suit verdict
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The defense team for Tempo magazine filed an appeal with the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday against a court decision ordering the weekly to pay Rp 500 million (US$58,100) to Tomy Winata and to publicly apologize to the businessman.
A panel of judges found the weekly guilty of libeling the well-connected Tomy in an article it ran that insinuated the businessman was involved in a fire that badly damaged the Tanah Abang textile market on Feb. 19, 2003.
Tempo's appeal comes days after Tomy's lawyers filed an appeal with the same court over the amount of damages awarded their client. They had been seeking Rp 200 billion in damages.
Tomy's lawyer Ervin Lubis filed the appeal last Thursday, exactly a week after the verdict was handed down. His colleague Farida Sulistiani confirmed that Tomy had decided to appeal.
"We have many points to appeal. But I can't give you the details because we have not received a copy of the verdict yet," she told The Jakarta Post by phone.
Tempo lawyer Darwin Aritonang said after filing the appeal that the move was a logical response to the court's lopsided decision.
"The panel of judges rejected all the considerations that could have served as mitigating factors for Tempo. In our appeal, we once again present these considerations to the Jakarta High Court," he said.
Darwin said that in their verdict, the judges overlooked he functions of the Press Council, as outlined in Press Law No. 40/1999, in handling media-related cases. The judges also downplayed the fact that Tempo, renowned for its investigative reporting, had attempted to present a fair and balanced picture in its article, Is Tomy in Tenabang?
"What is the use of the Press Council if not for resolving media-related cases? Furthermore, Tempo journalists contacted several relevant figures about Tomy's alleged involvement in the renovation of Tanah Abang textile market," he said.
The court on March 18 that Tempo libeled Tomy in the Tanah Abang article published on March 3, 2003 edition.
The court found the weekly's management responsible for publishing the article, which alleged that Tomy had submitted a Rp 53 billion renovation proposal three months prior to the fire at the market.
In January, Koran Tempo daily lost a defamation case filed by Tomy with the South Jakarta District Court. The court ordered the daily to pay Tomy US$1 million in damages. The daily has also appealed that decision.
In a related development, the panel of judges hearing a civil suit against Tempo chief editor Bambang Harymurti and journalists Ahmad Taufik and T. Iskandar Ali was forced to adjourn the trial until April 5 when several expert witnesses summoned to testify failed to appear.