'Tempo' lawsuit turns into battle of papers

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta State Administrative Court yesterday received documents to support the case of both parties in the suit between former Tempo employees and Minister of Information Harmoko.

Harmoko's lawyers turned in eight copies of the Tempo magazine that contained articles deemed as endangering national stability, the reason why the government revoked its publishing license.

One copy dated back to 1984 but none were from 1994. The government also submitted as evidence copies of letters from the Ministry of Information to the magazine warning the editors about the offending articles.

Tempo lost its license in June. At the time, it led the rest of the press in reporting the controversy over the procurement of 39 warships from Germany.

The government however denied that the revocation of the license was connected with these reports and said that Tempo repeatedly ignored government warnings on earlier articles.

Lawyers representing the other party in the lawsuit, former Tempo editor Goenawan Mohamad, yesterday also presented documents to support their claim that Harmoko's decision was illegal.

Goenawan is represented by Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, Todung Mulya Lubis, and Atmajaya Salim, while Harmoko was represented by six lawyers led by R. Wiyono.

The plaintiffs are challenging Harmoko to prove that the said offending articles have truly undermined national stability. (imn)