Jakarta – Indonesian press and human rights groups Wednesday lashed out at Attorney General Andi Ghalib for banning three journalists from reporting on his activities.

Ghalib, a military general, is already under fire over his handling of the investigation into the alleged fortune accumulated by former president Suharto, estimated by Time magazine at 15 billion dollars. Ghalib has also been accused of taking bribes.

"We strongly condemn the blacklisting of three journalists ... by the personnel of the attorney general's office," five journalist associations said in a joint statement.

The three banned reporters, from the leading Kompas daily, the RCTI private television station and the Suara Bangsa daily, were Tuesday served verbal notice that they were barred from covering activities at the attorney general's office.

The reason given was that the three "have acted rudely by pointing their fingers at the attorney general, and their questions appeared like an interrogation during a press conference".

The protest statement was signed by the chairmen of five groups – the Alliance of Independent Journalists, the Indonesian Journalists' Association-Reform, the Indonesian Association of Television Journalists, Indonesian Photographers and the Association of Radio Journalist of Indonesia.

The Indonesian Association for Legal Aid and Human Rights (PBHI), an umbrella organisation, also "strongly condemned" the ban.

Ghalib, the association said, "has never balked at improper actions that go against the wish of the people for the respect of the principle of the supremacy of law and the public accountability of officials".

PBHI demanded that Ghalib immediately revoke "his wrong decision" and urged Indonesian President B.J. Habibie to assess the "impropriety of officials he had appointed".

The groups urged Ghalib to provide "an explanation accompanied by logical reasons" on the decision and warned that if the demand was not heeded by noon Thursday, they will call on all journalists to protest en masse at his office.

The groups also called on all media to continue to closely follow the performance of Ghalib's office.

Earlier Wednesday, speaking before attending a meeting at the Bina Graha presidential office, Ghalib said: "On the journalists case, there may have been a misunderstanding with the public relations department" of his office.

But he also said that if a journalist "points his finger, screams ... they are not journalists." He also said journalists should be properly dressed, and not wear T-shirts, jeans or sandals.

Ghalib, who heads the official probe into Suharto, has himself been accused of having taken bribes from businessmen by the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), a private group.

The group has said it has evidence Ghalib received money transfers from two prominent businessmen currently under investigation over possible bank law violations. It also said that Ghalib and his wife had billions of rupiah (more than one million dollars) in several bank accounts.

[On June 10 the Jakarta Post quoted Ghalib as saying "It was merely a misunderstanding with [my office's] public relations division" claiming that he did not ban any journalists from covering a story at his office but asked them to behave and dress properly. "If necessary, I'll buy ties for them" he said. On the same day Agence France Presse said that Ghalib answered a police summons for questioning over the ICW report - James Balowski.]