Journalists In Makassar Stumbled On Defamation Cases

Illustration of journalists (ANTARA)

The Makassar Press Legal Aid Institute (LBH) team together with the South Sulawesi Journalists Advocacy Coalition (KAJ) accompanied online media journalist herd.id to fulfill the police's summons regarding the clarification of the alleged defamation case, at the Makassar City Police Office.

"Our client was summoned for clarification, then the investigators submitted a complaint report from the former special staff (Stafsus) of the governor who felt aggrieved by the reported person who was known to be a resource person in the report," said one of the legal advisers for LBH Makassar Firmansyah as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, January 25.

He conveyed the summons of the editor-in-chief of heral.id Suhandi by the examining Unit V of the Makassar Police Satreskrim Sub-Directorate regarding the alleged case of Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) with the capacity as witnesses.

However, the summons for clarification was not stated in the summons and what events were the subject, so his party asked about the substance of the problem so that clarification was asked and later became a witness.

"We questioned earlier regarding our client's summons. There was a complaint report from the party that felt aggrieved by the news and made him a witness. On behalf of the law, our client has the right to refuse to provide information as regulated in article 4 of Law number 40 of 1999, namely the right to refuse," said Firmansyah asserted.

He explained that the Press Law which is a Lex Specialist (specially) that regulates the Press dispute mechanism, including the right to refuse in article four. Because, the relationship between resource persons and journalists is very strong. The goal is to protect the source of information or source.

This also refers to the Press Council guidelines number: 01/P-DP/V/2007 concerning the Implementation of Rights to Reject and Legal Accountability in Journalistic Cases in press disputes.

He emphasized that journalist workers in carrying out their professions are protected by law, including not providing information or the right to refuse to provide information to anyone in order to protect and protect their source.

"Residents or journalist workers have the right to refuse to provide information with the purpose of protecting their source. This is related to the news. So our client is not a reported client but a witness, and we emphasize that he refuses to provide information," said the man who is often called Charlie emphasizing.

The case began with a police report by Hasanuddin Taibien as the former Special Staff (Stafsus) of the former South Sulawesi Governor Andi Sudirman Sulaiman who objected to the news through a press conference allegedly defaming his reputation by the reported Aruddini regarding the governor's policy of mutating and not giving positions alias non-jobs to dozens of State Civil Apparatus (ASN) within the South Sulawesi Provincial Government some time ago.

Responding to this, the Head of the South Sulawesi KAJ Team, Haeril, stated that his party was continuing to oversee efforts to allegedly silence and criminalize the press.

Dalam proses klarifikasi itu ada hak media atau wartawan untuk menolak memberikan keterangan, karena itu sesuai peraturan yang diatur dalam Undang-undang Pers maupun Pedoman Dewan Pers.

"Regarding that there is a applicable press law, if there is a problem related to journalists' work, the mechanism must actually go through the Press Council. And then there is also a connection with the MoU with the National Police Chief and the Press Council regarding press disputes. It should go through this mechanism," he added.

KAJ is a press organization coalition such as the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Makassar, the Indonesian Television Journalists Association (IJTI) of South Sulawesi, the Indonesian Photo Journalists (PFI) Makassar and the Indonesian Journalists Association (PJI) of South Sulawesi together with the Makassar Press LBH in escorting the summons.