'Tempo' stories did not disturb stability: Fikri
'Tempo' stories did not disturb stability: Fikri
JAKARTA (JP): The former Deputy Chief Editor of Tempo magazine said yesterday that the news weekly did not disturb national stability as claimed by the government to justify its decision in banning it last year.
Fikri Jufri made the remarks when testifying in a hearing at the Jakarta State Administrative Court on two lawsuits against Minister of Information Harmoko's decision to revoke the magazine's publishing license.
One lawsuit was filed by Goenawan Mohamad, Tempo's former chief editor, and the other by the magazine's former employees.
"It was not true that news carried by Tempo had disturbed either national stability, security, or order," he said in response to Chief Judge Benjamin Mangkoedilaga's questions.
He said that the magazine editors had never received any complaints for either the subjects or the objects of some news items run by Tempo.
He cited an example of the article Drama Berdarah di Jalan By Pass (Bloody drama on the By Pass Road) published in Tempo's 40th edition on Dec. 2, 1989, about the murder of a Jakarta police officer who had an affair. Tempo got a warning from Harmoko for running the story.
"We never received any complaints from the Ministry of Defense and Security or the Armed Forces headquarters regarding the contents of the article," he said.
Goenawan and the magazine's former employees were represented by four of their lawyers, Adnan Buyung Nasution, Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, Todung Mulya Lubis and Atmajaya Salim, while Harmoko was represented by all of his lawyers, led by R. Wiyono.
Tempo was closed down in June last year. The Ministry of Information said the magazine repeatedly ignored warnings from the government about its editorial content.
Currently, Harmoko's decision is being challenged by four distinct lawsuits from former Tempo editors, employees and readers. Two suits were filed at the administrative court and two at the Central Jakarta District Court. All suits oppose the validity of the minister's decision to revoke Tempo's license.
Tempo's former employees have been split. One group of employees has obtained a license to publish the new magazine called Gatra, which is financed by timber tycoon Mohammad (Bob) Hasan. Others have taken part-time jobs in Jakarta-based newspapers, while some others are still waiting for a publishing license of a new magazine.
Fikri said that their news had always been in line with the government's guidelines for news writing and reporting.
He said all members of the editorial board, who were in charge of the articles to be published, had the journalist's code of ethics and news reporting guidelines.
The editorial board had the authority to either withdraw or publish any article for publication.
He said the editorial board's members then delegated the control for the content of the articles to each unit head.
Fikri, occasionally inserting humor in his testimony, also criticized the Information Ministerial Decree which did not explicitly describe the reasons for the revocation of the magazine's publishing license.
He said it was contrary to their previous experience, in 1982, when the magazine's license was frozen for two months.
"We were informed that our publishing license was frozen because of our article on the general election," he said.
He also said that the revocation had shocked all of the magazine's employees.
"Some even cried on hearing the news, probably because of the sour end of the wind of openness, or realizing that they would lose their jobs," he said.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday next week, still waiting to hear testimonies of witnesses provided by Goenawan and the magazine's former employees.(imn)