Jakarta – International and national pressure has intensified against settling disputes over media reports using criminal charges, saying the trend will sacrifice press freedom and curb the public's right to information.
In Jakarta, the Committee of Anti-Criminal Charges against the Press staged a rally on Sunday at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, calling on the public to join forces against the criminalization of offenses committed by the press.
Journalist unions in Bandung and media professionals in Surabaya and Yogyakarta also protested the use of criminal charges in trying journalists.
The protests come on the eve of Monday's hearing, when judges will deliver a verdict in the trial of Tempo journalists Bambang Harymurti, who has been accused of defaming businessman Tomy Winata.
Meanwhile, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and several foreign journalists met on Sunday Jusuf Kalla, running mate of presidential candidate Susilo bambang Yudhoyono, to discuss the issue.
"We have to discuss the issue with politicians. Pak Kalla said he objected to the use of criminal charges against media people, but he [also] suggested that the media protect the people," AJI chairman Eddy Soeprapto said.
In response, Eddy said the existence of a publication depended on public appreciation and therefore, a publication must keep its reports beneficial to the public.
On Saturday, a group of journalist associations demanded that the governments of Indonesia and Thailand free several journalists being tried in the two countries for defamation.
Tempo journalists are being tried in Jakarta, while researcher Supinya Klangnarong and several journalists from the Thai Post daily are on trial in Bangkok.
The call for the journalists' release comes as courts in the two countries prepare to announce their decisions in the journalists' cases on Monday. Prosecutors have demanded that Bambang be sentenced to two years in jail for causing social unrest and defaming Tomy.
The Central Jakarta District Court will also hand down verdicts on cases involving two other Tempo journalists, Ahmad Taufik and Tengku Iskandar Ali, who have also been charged with defamation.
The charges against the three journalists stem from an article published last year in Tempo magazine, titled Is Tomy in Tenabang? The article implied that Tomy was connected to a devastating fire that destroyed much of the Tanah Abang textile market in February 2003.
Spearheaded by the London-based Article 19 – a non-governmental organization focusing on freedom of expression – and including the Jakarta-based Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information and the Thai Broadcast Journalist Association, the associations said in a joint statement the civil and defamation charges against Bambang, Klangnarong and the Thai Post journalists, particularly where there was a threat of imprisonment, represented a breach of freedom of expression.
"The charges send a negative message to all journalists and media organizations, exerting a chilling effect on freedom of expression and undermining the ability of the media to fulfill its role as watchdog of the government and the powerful establishment," said the group in a statement released on Saturday.
In Thailand, Klangnarong, the secretary-general of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform, and several Thai Post journalists were also brought to court after the daily ran a story on July 16, 2003, suggesting that a company linked to Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra was the beneficiary of Sinawatra's policies. The article noted a sharp rise in the company's profits since Sinawatra took office in February 2001.
The company, Shin Corp., Thailand's largest telecommunications company and whose main shareholder is the Sinawatra family, filed a defamation suit against Klangnarong and the Thai Post journalists, seeking monetary compensation from the defendants.