Weekly news tabloid 'DeTAK' set to hit newsstand today

JAKARTA (JP): A new weekly news tabloid DeTAK, a reincarnation of the DeTIK tabloid banned four years ago by the government, will hit the newsstand today, its chief editor Eros Djarot announced here yesterday.

Eros said the first edition of the 24 page tabloid would carry its first headline story under the title Bahaya Laten Orde Baru (Latent Danger of the New Order), an indirect dig at former president Soeharto's autocratic regime which often warned of the "latent danger of communism".

"Unlike DeTIK, DeTAK will focus more on analysis," Eros said of the tabloid to be published by PT Rizki Karsa Mulia, a company in which the employees hold a 40 percent stake in the ownership.

The tabloid's initial weekly circulation would be between 80,000 and 100,000 copies and each edition would be priced at Rp 2,500 (16 US cents), he said.

Sixty percent of the copies would be sold in Jakarta and the rest in Java and around the country, Eros said.

Eros said the tabloid was opening under publication permit No. 358/SK/Menpen/SIUPP dated July 10, 1998.

Eros apologized to journalists attending the launching ceremony yesterday for failing to circulate samples of the tabloid's first edition.

"Frankly, I was a bit nervous this morning because of that," he said.

Eros was accompanied yesterday by the publisher's commissioner representing DeTAK's employees, Dadang Rachmat H.S., who is also the secretary-general of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).

In June 1994, DeTAK's predecessor DeTIK was banned by the government along with Tempo and Editor.

Following the resignation of Soeharto on May 21, freedom of the press has been a much lauded slogan by the new government under President B.J. Habibie and Minister of Information Muhammad Yunus has made the process of obtaining a publishing license much easier than it formerly was. (aan)