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Police to review 'Post' case
Clarification: The Jakarta Postâs legal team members Todung Mulya Lubis (right), Lelyana Santosa (center) and Moehamad Ponti Azani brief journalists in Jakarta on Monday concerning the case regarding the police naming the Postâs editor-in-chief Meidyatama Suryodiningrat as a suspect for publishing a cartoon about the activities of the Islamic State (IS) organization
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span class="caption">Clarification: The Jakarta Post's legal team members Todung Mulya Lubis (right), Lelyana Santosa (center) and Moehamad Ponti Azani brief journalists in Jakarta on Monday concerning the case regarding the police naming the Post's editor-in-chief Meidyatama Suryodiningrat as a suspect for publishing a cartoon about the activities of the Islamic State (IS) organization. The team made it clear that the publication of the cartoon was not blasphemy as suggested by the police as it was purely a journalistic piece. The case, the team said, should be dealt with as per the Press Law and not under the Criminal Code. JP/DON
The National Police say they will review the blasphemy case concerning The Jakarta Post's editor-in-chief Meidyatama Suryodiningrat based on input they have received from civil society, including from the Press Council, which has proposed to the police to drop the charge against Meidyatama.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said the police would follow up the Press Council's conclusion that the newspaper had violated the press code of ethics but did not commit blasphemy.
'We will coordinate the case again with the Press Council,' Boy said on Monday.
According to the Press Council, the proposal was made following a two-day meeting between the council's chairman, Bagir Manan, and National Police chief Gen. Sutarman over the weekend.
The meeting was a realization of the memorandum of understanding between the two institutions, signed on Feb. 9, 2012, that they would coordinate with each other when there was any media-related dispute.
'The case is settled. We have a deal to drop the case,' Press Council member Yosep Stanley Adi Prasetyo said on Monday, adding that the Press Council had sent a letter to the Jakarta Police and the National Police on the Post case.
The Jakarta Preachers Corps (KMJ) filed a complaint with the National Police in July, accusing the Post of blasphemy for publishing a cartoon in its July 3 edition, criticizing violence conducted by the Islamic State (IS) organization, otherwise known as ISIL or ISIS.
The newspaper retracted the cartoon, which contained symbolism that might have been viewed as offensive.
'The Post regrets the error in judgement, which was in no way meant to malign or be disrectful of any religion. Our intent was to crititique the use of symbols [specifically the IS flag] in acts of violence in general and in this case, against fellow Muslims,' the newspaper stated in its apology and retraction statement in its July 8 edition.
In the meantime, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto, who announced last week that Meidyatama had been declared a blasphemy suspect, confirmed on Monday that Meidyatama's lawyers had asked the police to postpone the police interrogation from Dec. 15 to Jan. 7, next year.
'The letter we received from the suspect's legal team said that he had many things to do before Jan. 7. Our investigators have no problem with this arrangement,' Rikwanto said.
The Post's legal team urged the Jakarta Police to return the Post case to the remit of the Press Council rather than using the Criminal Code as the latter approach would harm Indonesia's standing as the third-largest democracy in the world.
'We hope the case will be left in the hands of the Press Council and there will be no criminalization of the press,' the leader of the legal team Todung Mulya Lubis told journalists on Monday.
According to Todung the Post had no malicious intent when it published the cartoon.
'The Jakarta Post only warned the public about the dangers of ISIS and Indonesia should reject the organization's presence,' Todung said, adding that the government had officially banned the organization from Indonesia.
Added to this fact, Article 156 of the Criminal Code only applied to words and not to pictures, and by those considerations, Todung said, Meidyatama should be free of all blasphemy charges.
'The cartoon published by The Jakarta Post did not meet the grammatical requirements as stipulated in the Criminal Code,' said the senior lawyer.
