'Tempo' wins its case against Texmaco
'Tempo' wins its case against Texmaco
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Central Jakarta District Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of
Tempo magazine in a civil suit filed by Texmaco group owner
Marimutu Sinivasan, who was seeking tens of millions of dollars
in financial compensation from the weekly for publishing articles
that he claimed had tarnished his image and businesses.
In the much-awaited verdict, the panel of judges ruled that
the defamation suit against the weekly was invalid as Sinivasan,
according to Law No. 40/1999 on press, should have used his right
to respond to the series of articles he deemed libelous in the
first place.
The panel of judges also said that what Sinivasan and Texmaco
group were trying to do was obstruction of press freedom.
"The plaintiff has attempted to hamper the press from
performing its function, which is to publish information
important enough for the public," presiding judge Sylvester Djuma
said as he read the decision.
The plaintiff's lawsuit was also deemed to be too obscure by
the judges, as it failed to specify which of the 18 companies in
the Texmaco group had suffered from material or non-material
losses that resulted from the publication of several Tempo
articles critical of the ailing business empire.
The panel of judges also ruled that the counter-suit filed by
the magazine would be discontinued.
The plaintiff's lawyers said they would appeal.
Sinivasan, who resigned from his post as Texmaco group
president director last month, filed the suit after alleging that
the magazine published some 50 articles between December 1999 and
December 2000 which he claimed had ruined his image and the
companies. He demanded Tempo pay damages amounting to US$51
million.
Tempo counter-sued the businessman for obstructing press
freedom. Its lawyers sought financial compensation of $100
million.
In the course of seven months of trial after Sinivasan filed
the civil suit on May 26, each side called eight witnesses,
including former state-owned Antara news agency chief editor
Parni Hadi and senior journalist R.H. Siregar.
Speaking after the trial, Tempo chief editor Bambang Harymurti
said that there were still judges who stood for promoting press
freedom.
"Therefore, the press should not be fearful of informing the
public about how state funds are being used," he said.
The same panel of judges also presided over a trial between
Texmaco and the Kompas daily newspaper in a defamation suit.
The court decided to approve the out-of-the-court settlement
between Marimutu and top executives of Kompas in a civil suit
filed by the businessman.
In a letter of agreement signed by Sinivasan and Kompas co-
founder Jakob Oetama and chief editor Soeryopratomo, which was
read by the plaintiff's defense lawyer, the former had agreed on
Nov. 14 to unconditionally terminate the civil suit against the
daily.
The agreement was reached after a series of closed-door
meetings without the presence of their lawyers.
Member of Kompas defense team Amir Syamsuddin said that he
knew nothing about how the agreement had been reached by both
parties.
"I have no information as to why Sinivasan decided to withdraw
the suit, after all these lengthy legal proceedings," he told
reporters after the trial.
He regretted the fact that Sinivasan had neither informed the
court nor the public in general about his true motives behind the
belated agreement.
Sinivasan sued the daily, its co-founder and chief editor over
news articles published since 1999, which he deemed to have
tarnished the image of 18 companies within the giant PT Texmaco
Group.
His lawyers sought financial compensation of $151 million
(approximately Rp 1.23 trillion). Kompas itself demanded $150
million in a counter-suit.