'The Jakarta Post' offers to meet Pertamina directors

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Post offered to meet with Pertamina directors to clarify its recent editorial on the sale by the giant state oil company of two large tankers, which has been a source of public controversy in the past month, the newspaper's editors said on Monday.

Pertamina President Ariffi Nawawi and three other members of the board of directors filed a complaint on Monday morning with the National Police, saying that the editorial that appeared in the newspaper on Wednesday was libelous and had tarnished their reputation.

The editorial, entitled Tentacles of corruption commented on the controversy over the sale of two Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) which Pertamina had ordered from a South Korean shipbuilding company.

Lucas SH and Partners law firm, on behalf of PT Pertamina directors, sent a letter to the Post demanding an apology for the editorial piece by 10 a.m. on Monday and that the paper "correct and revise the content of the article".

The Post said, in a statement on Monday, it had written to the Pertamina directors and their lawyers, offering to meet and clarify the situation. The letter was sent by special courier, and was received in their respective offices at around 7 a.m.

"The letter invited the directors and commissioners of PT Pertamina to meet with us to clarify matters over The Jakarta Post's June 23 editorial which commented on the sale of Pertamina's two giant tankers."

Since the Pertamina directors decided to go ahead and file their complaint with the police anyway, the Post appointed on Monday lawyers Denny Kailimang and Todung Mulya Lubis to represent it. The newspaper would also take up the matter of the allegations of corruption with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) at a meeting planned at the latter's office at noon on Tuesday.

"The editorial of The Jakarta Post is a compilation of news and analysis that have developed over the controversy of the sale of the giant tankers by Pertamina. The editorial is part of the (newspaper's) function in building a culture of greater transparency and accountability that has become our common commitment," the statement said.

In the letter to Pertamina, the Post's Editor-in-Chief Raymond Toruan said the editorial essentially expressed the newspaper's "principal thinking in carrying out our professional duties; as a member of the press, we will continue to be loyal and pay attention to information and issues that are of concern to public interests, and are valuable to the life of the community, the nation and the state."

Lukas told reporters after filing the complaint with the police that the editorial "gives the impression that Pertamina directors had lied, and were always being dishonest, and this led to this controversy that has not been resolved to this day".

In response to a reporter's question, he acknowledged that other newspapers and magazines had been reported the controversy over the sale of the two tankers by Pertamina, but he made a distinction between news reports and an editorial.

"We don't have any problem with the news reports," he said. "The Jakarta Post wrote it in the context of an editorial. So, it's very different."