Witnesses in cyber defamation case admit unfamiliarity with internet

Two Omni International Hospital employees testified against housewife Prita Mulyasari on Thursday, saying the defendant had defamed two hospital doctors in her email she posted in a mailing list.
 
But the witnesses, laboratory analyst Supriyanto and customer service coordinator Ogiana Yandri admitted that they were not familiar with the internet.
 
Suriyanto told the Tangerang District court that Prita defamed, via her Google mail account, Dr. Grace, the hospital’s customer service manager, and specialist doctor Hengky, who treated Prita on Aug. 7-12 last year. Prita actually posted her email which was considered libelous from her Yahoo account.
 
When the panel of judges, presided over by Arthur Hangewa, asked how a Google mail account was opened, Supriyanto was confused.
 
“As soon as I opened the Google page on the internet, I could directly see the email,” he said, adding that he could not differentiate between website and internet because he never had an email account.
 
Ogiana said she also learned about the defamation case from Google. But later on she said she read Prita’s email from a print out of the email shown to her by Dr Indah.
 
When the judges asked whether she could distinguish Google from Yahoo, she claimed to be internet illiterate.
 
“I am sorry I am internet illiterate. I don’t know anything about the internet,” she said.