T

he editor-in-chief of private channel RCTI, Arya Sinulingga, filed a police report on Friday against the news portal, tempo.co, as well as a handful of Twitter users for allegedly distributing libelous information regarding his arrest by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Arya, who is also member of presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto'€™s campaign team, accused tempo.co of publishing a report late Thursday stating that the KPK had arrested him, allegedly over his involvement in a graft investigation connected with the recent presidential election.

It was later discovered that the anti-graft body had detained five individuals in Karawang, West Java, in connection to a graft-ridden real estate project.

Arya, a senior journalist, said that the tempo.co new portal retracted the news report after learning that Arya was not among the suspects, but that the move was not enough to undo the damages that had been inflicted upon him.

Arya said that the false report on tempo.co had been used by some individuals on Twitter as a basis to smear his reputation.

'€œThis is a serious issue. [Tempo] accused me of being arrested by the KPK in relation to a case centering on the presidential election. Some [Twitter users] even said that [Prabowo'€™s] campaign team paid a bribe [for the action]. These rumors damage my reputation,'€ he said after filing the report at National Police headquarters in Jakarta.

Arya claimed that a tempo.co reporter tried to contact him after publishing the false report, but that he had declined to respond.

'€œThis should be a lesson for media outlets not to just publish and drop [false] stories later,'€ he said.

Aside from tempo.co, Arya also pressed for charges against Yuddy Chrisnandi, a campaigner for presidential frontrunner Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo; Emerson Yuntho, a anti-corruption activist; A. Syukron Amin; Eski Suyanto; Poltak Hotradero and those behind the JKW4ALL Twitter handle for spreading injurious rumors on social media.

Arya'€™s lawyer, Habiburokhman, accused tempo.co and the individuals involved in the aforementioned report of violating multiple articles of the Criminal Code (KUHP) and the 2008 Information and Electronic Transactions Law (ITE). Violations of the ITE law carry a maximum penalty of six years imprisonment.

Several of the accused individuals have deleted their tweets relating to the case, have provided clarification and even issued apologies on their Twitter accounts.

Separately, tempo.co editor-in-chief Daru Priyambodo shrugged off the allegations, claiming that the report failed to mention Arya'€™s name or initials.

'€œHis name or initials were never mentioned. So what are the grounds of his claim against us? Yes, we made corrections to the report, but those were not related to the names [mentioned on the report],'€ he told the Jakarta Post.

Daru said that his reporter had tried to make contact with Arya when the latter held a press conference late Thursday in Jakarta.

'€œOur reporter sought clarification pertaining to the rumors that were circulating of an arrest of an individual with the initials AS. However, Arya declined [to make a statement],'€ he said.

Daru said tempo.co was preparing to press charges against Arya for allegedly making false allegations and defaming the online news portal.

Prior to his spat with tempo.co, Arya was in the national spotlight last month over his decision to dismiss Raymond Arian Rondonuwu, the producer of RCTI'€™s news program, Seputar Indonesia, after the latter publicly challenged an order to air a report on the alleged leak of presidential debate material to Jokowi'€™s camp.