The Indonesian Press Council on Thursday said press freedom remains restricted in the country after four readers who had their letters of protest published in newspapers were taken to court.

The council said all articles published in the media, including readers' letters, were technically journalistic works, and as such fell under the auspices of the 1999 press law.

Four stall owners -- Kwee Meng Luan, Khoe Sengseng, Vivi Tanang and Pan Esther -- were sued by property developer PT Duta Pertiwi after protesting in the readers' letters columns of several newspapers two years ago, accusing the company of allegedly manipulating the status of building use certificates (HGB) for stalls bought from the company.

The council says this incident is the first of its kind in the country.

In April 2008, the North Jakarta District Court found Pan guilty of defamation and ordered her to pay Rp 1 billion (US$108,108) in damages. However, in the same court, Kwee was found not guilty by a different panel of judges who tried his case under the press law.

Leo Batubara, the council's deputy chairman, said it was odd the same court issued different verdicts in identical cases.

"It shows law enforcers do not embrace the same legal standards when handling similar press-related cases," he said.

Leo said all published articles, be they opinion pieces or letters of protest, were journalistic works because the media was responsible for editing and publishing them.

"Therefore, courts should use the press law rather than the Criminal Code when dealing with cases relating to journalistic works," he said, adding the use of the Criminal Code would in effect criminalize the press.

The council and other press organizations, including Media Watch and Press Legal Aid, urged police, prosecutors and judges to include the council in matters relating to the press.

"Because this is a matter of press freedom, the press should be allowed to facilitate such cases first before they turn into legal cases," Leo said.

"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a 2005 meeting with us legal process was the last resort when someone had a dispute with the press. Before that, the President said the person should first use their right to respond by sending a letter of protest. If it doesn't work, the person should ask the council to facilitate the dispute."

National Police senior detective Brig. Gen. Badrodin Haiti said police could not prevent people from filing charges with them.

"We can't force people to use their rights to respond or to ask advise from the council. They might not like those ideas and prefer to file a report," he said.

The council also said strict disclaimers should be printed in readers' letters columns, providing guidelines on how readers should express their ideas.

"We must keep media spheres free from disputes and clashes. We must also make sure all readers' letters use factual and unbiased language," council member Bekti Nugroho said.

The council suggested the media share the policy implemented by The Jakarta Post of confirming all incoming complaints and giving the accused party two days' notice to respond. This would allow the media the chance to publish both the complaint and response on the same day.

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