INDONESIA
PRESS FREEDOM AGAIN UNDER THREAT FROM POLITICIANS, BUSINESSMEN

Indonesia has been warned that press freedom is back under threat, despite the downfall of authoritarian president Soeharto six years ago. The media has come increasingly under threat with state officials and businesspeople lodging criminal and civil charges against media enterprises without taking the Press Law into account.

By A. JUNAIDI in Jakarta

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Observers warned the nation on Thursday that press freedom was back under
threat, despite the downfall of authoritarian president Soeharto six years ago.

The media has come increasingly under threat with state officials and
businesspeople lodging criminal and civil charges against media enterprises
without taking the Press Law into account.

Former chairman of the Press Council Atmakusumah Astraatmadja said charges
against journalists of Rakyat Merdeka newspaper and Tempo magazine and a court
verdict against Koran Tempo daily constituted intimidation and undermined
press freedom.

"All that forces journalists into self-censorship. The media can no longer
dare to speak out for public interests," he told a seminar titled: Press
Freedom under Threat.

Atmakusumah blamed the government for failing to protect journalists covering
the war against separatist rebels in the troubled province of Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam.

A senior RCTI reporter, Ersa Siregar, was killed last December by soldiers in
a gunfight with Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels who abducted him in June last
year. His cameraman, Fery Santoro who was also taken hostage along with him,
has not been released.

Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Rector Azyumardi Azra concurred,
saying that if this trend continued it could endanger press freedom.

"The Tempo case is a shock. It has threatened press freedom," he told the
same seminar.

Last month, the South Jakarta District Court ruled against Koran Tempo and
ordered it to pay a US$1 million fine to businessman Tomy Winata who brought a
libel case against the newspaper.

In December, the same court ordered Koran Tempo to publicly apologize to the
owner of the ailing Texmaco group, Marimutu Sinivasan, who filed a libel suit
over a series of critical articles on his business empire carried by the
newspaper.

The same court had also sentenced journalists of Rakyat Merdeka to several
months in prison for articles considered defamatory against President Megawati
Soekarnoputri and House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

Similarly, senior lawyer Nono Anwar Makarim lashed out at state officials and
businesspeople for taking the media to court by brushing aside the Press Law.

They should use the Press Law in handling their disputes with the media
instead of criminalizing the press cases by directly bringing journalists
or their companies to court, he said.

Nono argued that courts could impose unlimited fines on media enterprises or
journalists charged both under the Criminal Code (KUHP) and the Criminal Code
Procedures (KUHAP).

"Huge fines could kill media companies, and later press freedom. Fines should
not lead to the bankruptcy of the media industry" he added.

But based on the Press Law, print or electronic media can be fined a maximum
of Rp 500 million (US$58,823) should they refuse to publish apologies and
objections of readers.

Meanwhile, Tomy Winata's lawyer Desmond J. Mahesa urged the public not to
question the amount of the fine, but instead the substance of the Koran Tempo
case, in which an article linked his client with last year's massive fire
in the Tanah Abang market, Central Jakarta.

"Tempo should have provided the facts if there was any such proposal from
Tomy to rebuild the market," Desmond told Thursday's seminar.

He said he refused to use the Press Law, claiming that it did not regulate
defamation cases as stipulated in the Criminal Code.

Desmond said his client also rejected his right of reply over what he
considered to be Tempo's defamatory articles, as recommended by the Press Law.

The lawyer said Tomy also refused to involve the Press Council in a mediation
to settle the case because it clearly favored the newspaper.

"Since the beginning, Pak Atmakusumah commented that Tempo's report was in
keeping with journalistic code of ethics. How can we trust such a partial
press council," he said.