Soeharto repeatedly won condemnation from media organizations around the world for muzzling journalists during much of his time as president. More than nine years after he was forced to step down, the ailing and aging former president is still taunting the media.

The Supreme Court has awarded Soeharto a hefty Rp 1 trillion (US$106 million) settlement from Time Asia magazine, which in 1999 published a series of articles about massive corruption scandals involving the former first family. The American-based weekly magazine, its editors, as well as Hong Kong and Indonesian-based journalists, have been ordered to pay damages for "destroying the good name" of the former strongman. The court also ordered Time to apologize to Soeharto by taking out huge advertisements in several publications around the world.

The Supreme Court decision is final. There is no recourse for Time but to pay up. The only way it can avoid paying the penalty is to file for a case review, and this is only possible if Time lawyers can find new evidence to support its defense for publishing the articles.

Although the odds are very much stacked against the magazine, we wish to let its owners and journalists know that we, and many in the media industry and journalism profession in Indonesia, are with them and will support their fight to have the ruling overturned, one way or another.

For, unless we challenge the Supreme Court, the verdict will have far-reaching negative consequences for the life of this nation, in terms of the integrity of the Indonesian courts in dispensing justice, in terms of the media's working environment and in terms of the ongoing anti-graft drive.

The Supreme Court, which has been beset with allegations of corruption, has again shot itself in the foot. The three justices on the panel hearing the Time case overturned earlier rulings by district and high courts, both of which dismissed the lawsuit filed by Soeharto.

This inconsistency between the lower courts and the highest court of the land defies logic. It fuels speculation that justice goes to the highest bidder, or in this particular case, to the more politically connected.

The Supreme Court is doing itself a great disservice. This was the same court that last year acquitted Tempo editors on criminal defamation charges, insisting that anyone with a complaint against the media must refer to the 1999 Press Law. That law accommodates the right of reply for those who feel defamed.

This is a legal course that Soeharto (or his lawyers) never pursued with Time. The celebrated 2006 ruling for Tempo should have been considered by the justices who heard Soeharto vs. Time case.

The latest Supreme Court ruling will have a chilling effect on the media and the journalism profession. No media outlet has the kind of money that the court ordered Time to pay, and most would fold under such a ruling. Many newsrooms will now shy away from reporting controversial stories or conducting their own investigations into corruption scandals and other forms of abuse. Public interest, the people's right to know, has been severely damaged.

The Indonesian media, freed from the censorship and harassment that Soeharto inflicted during his 30-year reign, has played a role in unveiling and reporting power abuse scandals since the end of the corrupt New Order regime in 1998.

Tempo magazine, one of the few local publications with a strong investigative reporting tradition, has uncovered many cases of abuses of power before the authorities stepped in. Consider it one of the public duties of the media in a democracy.

Time's 1999 articles headlined "Soeharto Inc." should be seen as part of the drive to make the former president and his children accountable for their actions. The article sought to answer the question that was in the minds of many people, then and today: how much money is the Cendana family worth, and how much of that wealth is legitimate?

More than nine years after he stepped down, Soeharto remains a free man, as do his children who continue to control the business empires they built during the reign of their father largely through family connections.

Once again, the Indonesian people are the losers. Soeharto and his children may soon be laughing all the way to the bank to cash in the Time check. Even though he is no longer president, Soeharto has outwitted us once again, with the help of friends still in powerful places.