`Tempo' staff formally laid off by publisher

`Tempo' staff formally laid off by publisher

JAKARTA (JP): PT Graffiti Pers, the publisher of the banned
Tempo magazine, on Saturday formally laid off all its employees,
nearly four months since its closure.

All the employees were given their severance pay on Saturday,
according to Bambang Bujono, the spokesman for the foundation of
Tempo employees.

Bambang said about 110 staffers, made up mostly of
journalists, are now officially "unemployed".

Some 200 others have moved on to establish a new magazine,
called Gatra, which they are planning to establish with financial
backing from timber tycoon Muhammad (Bob) Hasan.

The government revoked the publishing license of Tempo,
Indonesia's oldest and most established news magazine, last June
for repeatedly ignoring official warnings about its editorial
content.

The magazine's staff since then has been split into two camps,
one favoring joining Bob Hasan and the other bent on starting
their own new magazine, which they hope to call Opini.

Gatra has reportedly been given a publishing license from the
Ministry of Information. Opini's license application has already
been submitted to the government.

The proponents of Opini had earlier hoped to use the proceeds
from the sales of the foundation's share in PT Graffiti Pers to
finance their magazine project.

A trial edition of Opini was issued last week with a cover
story about the recent bus drivers' strike in Jakarta. (emb)