TIME ISSUES LEGAL CHALLENGE TO SOEHARTO’S DEFAMATION WIN IN INDONESIA
January 2nd 2008 23:50
Time Incorporated is about to launch a legal challenge to the A$125.7 million in defamation damages granted to former Indonesian dictator Soeharto, according the Age newspaper in Melbourne.
Time magazine published a cover story in 1999, which contained allegations that Soeharto and his family had $US9 billion stored in European banks.
But The Age reports that three months after the “shock decision” against Time Inc, the publisher's lawyers in Jakarta are set to file a 100-page legal challenge in what is seen as a test case for media freedom in Indonesia.
Todung Mulya Lubis, one of the lawyers, told The Age the challenge includes "vindication" of the journalistic practices used by New York-based Time magazine when it published the cover story titled ‘Suharto Inc.’
“This is not only a case against Time Inc," said Mr Lubis, a prominent human rights lawyer. "This is a case that goes to the very fundamental principles of press freedom and democracy in Indonesia."
Indonesia's Gatra magazine reported that when Soeharto learned that the court ordered he receive a staggering $A125.7 million in defamation damages, he said, "I am becoming rich, suddenly."
Soeharto told Gatra in a recent rare interview he would donate 65 percent of the damages payment to the poor and give the rest to the state. Government officials are sceptical.
- From MediaBlab
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