Alan Sipress, Jakarta – An Indonesian court has handed down a record libel judgment against one of the country's most prominent newspapers, ordering Koran Tempo on Tuesday to pay $1 million in damages to an Indonesian businessman for reporting last year that he had planned to open a casino despite laws banning gambling.The case is one of a series of libel suits by businessmen, politicians and senior military officers that news media and human rights advocates said were creating a chilling atmosphere and threatening to roll back some of the gains made by Indonesia's press after the end of the dictatorship of Suharto in 1998.
With strict censorship lifted, newspapers and magazines have proliferated over the last six years, while competing television and radio stations now crowd the airwaves.
The government still restricts reporting about a few subjects, in particular the separatist conflict in the western province of Aceh, but investigative journalism has taken root and the country's institutions, widely criticized for corruption, are subjected to a degree of scrutiny once unthinkable.
Over the last year, some of Indonesia's most popular publications have been staggered by a series of lawsuits, with some legal experts complaining that the courts were unduly swayed by the money and political influence of the high-profile plaintiffs.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri sued the editor of the tabloid Rakyat Merdeka for criminal defamation under colonial-era laws over insulting headlines, including two that compared her to a cannibal and a leech. The speaker of the House of Representatives, who has been convicted of corruption, sued another Rakyat Merdeka editor after being depicted in a political cartoon as bare-chested and dripping with sweat. Both editors were found guilty and given suspended prison sentences. Koran Tempo and its affiliated magazine are publications with a much more distinguished pedigree.
The weekly Tempo magazine had stubbornly advocated democratic freedoms during Suharto's 32-year rule before being banned by the government in 1994. The magazine returned as part of the reform movement that followed Suharto's ouster and quickly became one of Indonesia's most respected publications.
Last March, Tempo published allegations that Tomy Winata, a banking and property mogul, stood to profit from a fire a month earlier that destroyed a mammoth textile market in Jakarta, and it suggested he may have been behind the incident. Winata filed civil and criminal charges. That case is pending. Several Tempo journalists were roughed up after at least 100 Winata supporters besieged the magazine's offices following the article's publication.
Soon after, Winata filed another lawsuit, claiming Koran Tempo had separately libeled him in the article discussing alleged plans for a casino. He argued that it was part of a campaign by the newspaper and its sister magazine to ruin his reputation.
As part of the judgment, the court ordered Koran Tempo to publish apologies in domestic and international media outlets. Winata's attorney said Wednesday that his client would be satisfied with the court ruling this week only if it prompts Koran Tempo to clear his name by formally apologizing.
"Tomy Winata wants righteousness," said Desmond J. Mahesa, the defense attorney. "He wants his name to be rehabilitated." But Bambang Harymurti, Koran Tempo's editor in chief, said the newspaper stood by the article. Harymurti, who was found guilty along with the reporter who wrote the disputed article, said they would not apologize and had no intention of agreeing to the $1 million judgment, which media experts said is the largest libel award ever against an Indonesian publication. "We can't pay it and even if we could, we wouldn't. It will set a bad precedent. It is the result of the misuse of law," he said.
Harymurti said Koran Tempo would appeal the decision, aiming ultimately to bring the case before the Indonesian Supreme Court. He predicted that the Supreme Court justices would be more sympathetic to the role of the press in a democratic society. But even if the newspaper eventually prevails, he said, the court case is already having the effect of intimidating other publications. "This is a stifling environment for journalists," he said.
Moreover, he said, the court had failed to take into account the public interest served by the media and had ignored a special Indonesian law meant to regulate the press, instead rendering the verdict under less favorable terms of ordinary civil law.
"We have big space for a liberal press but, on the other hand, we face a consolidation of the old powers that want to control the press like before," said Nezar Patria, secretary general of the Alliance of Independent Journalists. "The media is becoming afraid to publish some articles because they could face court charges."