(ISAI/IFEX) – According to the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), Bob Hassan, owner of the weekly tabloid “ParOn”, closed the newspaper on 9 June 1998, without any prior discussion with the journalists and workers. The official reason for the closure is that the weekly was not selling well. Yet the closure took place after “ParOn” […]
(ISAI/IFEX) – According to the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI),
Bob Hassan, owner of the weekly tabloid “ParOn”, closed the newspaper on 9
June 1998, without any
prior discussion with the journalists and workers.
The official reason for the closure is that the weekly was not selling
well. Yet the closure took place after “ParOn” had increased its circulation
dramatically from 30,000 to 70,000 in the last month.
According to AJI, the closure took place because “ParOn” journalists,
inspired by the recent wave of political reform, wanted to practice press
freedom – for instance, by conducting an investigation into Soeharto’s
hidden wealth. In the last two editions, “ParOn”‘s cover stories were
“Action to Reveal Soeharto’s Wealth” (1 June edition), and “Soeharto
Family’s Land as Big as Jakarta” (8 June edition). This, despite the fact
that “ParOn”‘s Managing Director had warned the editorial staff not to
publish anything linked to the controversy surrounding former president
Soeharto, who is a close friend of Bob Hassan.
Hassan’s action is another form of banning, which AJI warned about 3 years
previously, on the grounds that Soeharto’s policy on share holdings in the
mass media threatens Indonesian press freedom from two sides: the government
as power holder, and the owner as investor. According to AJI, the closure of
“ParOn” proves that banning can be carried out by media investors.
Based on the above, AJI calls on:
1. The management and share holders of “ParOn” to fulfil journalists’ and
workers’ rights by, for example, providing financial compensation, as well
as 20% of the shares, to which they are entitled according to Press Law
1982, on the grounds that “ParOn”‘s closure is based solely on the interests
of the owner.
2. Journalists and workers of “ParOn” to keep publishing the tabloid on
their own, through all possible means, based on professionalism and
idealism, such as by finding other investors or by using their own capital,
such as the 20% share holding to which they are entitled.
3. Journalists and workers of “ParOn” to keep fighting for their rights,
both normative – such as their salary and other compensation – as well as
their rights as journalists, and all Indonesian journalists and media
workers to do everything necessary to protect, and struggle for, their
rights.
4. The investors in all mass media to respect to the rights of journalists
and media workers, to halt any intervention in editorial policy, and to
involve journalists/workers in all decisions linked to the fate of the
publication.
