Todung Mulya Lubis Wins Defamation Lawsuit for Time Magazine
HRA NEWSMAKERS
By Rita Moran
Todung Mulya Lubis, HRA’s International Advisory Board member in Jakarta, served as lawyer for TIME Magazine in a decades-long law suit in Indonesia’s courts. Time Magazine was charged with defaming ex-dictator Soharto by alleging in a cover story titled “The Family Firm” that Suharto and his children amassed $73 billion, the bulk of it from oil and mining,forestry,property,banking and petrochemical, much of which was lost in the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
Supreme Court Judge Hatta Ali ruled recently that the article “did not violate the law” or breach “the press code of conduct,” and that Time owed no money to the Suharto family.
“We have been struggling to find justice for a decade now,” said Todung Mulya Lubis, adding that he hoped the decision would give journalists the courage to do their jobs. “It has been a long road.”
Soeharto, who died last year at the age of 87, seized power in a 1965 coup that left up to half a million people dead. He ruled the country with an iron fist, killing or imprisoning hundreds of thousands of political opponents before he was ousted in a wave street protest one decade ago. He evaded prosecution on charges of embezzling state funds, with lawyers successfully arguing up until his death that he was too ill to stand trial. Neither was he ever tried for human rights abuses.
The administration of current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is widely expected to win another five-year term in elections this July, is credited with overseeing the trials and convictions of several high-profile government officials charged with graft.
*) Human Rights Advocates - www.humanrightsadvocates.org