Jakarta – Two witnesses on Tuesday testified in favor of Time magazine in a hearing of the 27 billion dollar defamation suit filed against the the US weekly by former Indonesian strongman Suharto.

Communications expert Andi Abdul Muis and senior Indonesian journalist and author Gunawan Mohamad – appearing at the Central Jakarta district court as Time's "expert witnesses" – both said the magazine had attempted to cover both sides in their May 24, 1999 edition.

Suharto sued Time for 27 billion dollars in July last year after the magazine alleged the former strongman and his family were sitting on a fortune of 15 billion dollars.

Mohamad, one of the founders of the leading Tempo weekly magazine, told the court that Time had "covered both sides" in their four-month investigative piece on Suharto.

In the cover story the magazine alleged that the former leader had transfered some nine-billion dollars from banks in Switzerland to Austria shortly after he resigned in 1998.

Asked by presiding judge Sihol Sitompul about what "cover both sides" meant, Mohamad said: "Covering both sides is something that has to be done by a journalist and it has to be mentioned in the story. It means that the reporter has approached the source but did not receive any response, and that can be defined as 'cover both sides'," he said.

Muis told the court that journalists' ethics stipulate that they must try to approach both sides of a story involving "conflicting interests." But he said that should sources be unavailable for a response or comment, "the journalist could try to find alternative sources which could represent the primary source."

Time says its reporters tried to interview Suharto and his family but had been turned down. They interviewed two of Suharto's lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon and O.C. Kaligis instead. Referring to Suharto, Muis said that "a public figure must always be open to public assesment."

Meanwhile Mohamad said the chief editor of a media organization "must be responsible" if his or her journalist refuses to answer a court order to reveal their sources during a trial. He described Time's cover depicting a smiling Suharto with the "Suharto Inc." inscription as "a mere charicature," adding that the article did not constitute a "trial by the press." The trial resumes next Tuesday to hear another two expert witnesses.