Indonesia: Police Buy Bulk Copies Of Tempo Weekly

1 July 2010

Jakarta-based weekly news magazine Tempo accused Indonesia’s national police of mass purchase of its latest edition that published an investigative cover story on the private bank accounts of top officials of the department.

The department, however, rejected reports that it purchased the magazine’s edition in bulk to prevent its distribution.

The magazine on its website on Monday quoted one of its main distributor in East Jakarta as saying that copies were bought in bulk by mysterious buyers who looked like police at early hours of the morning before they could reach the paper booths.

Inspector-General Edward Aritonang Wang countered the allegations saying, “We realised that we could not prevent the information from being spread widely.”

The cover story titled Fat Bank Accounts of Police Officers reported the financial assets and money transfer in the private bank accounts of high ranking officers like former chief of detectives Susno Duadji. The report was based on data from the Final Transaction Report and Analysis Center (PPATK), as mentioned on Tempo magazine’s website.

Inspector-General Edward criticised the magazine for citing “anonymous sources”, adding that it is forbidden by law to publish reports of transactions based on information of PPATK. However, the national police department has been investigating 800 suspicious transactions out of 1,100 reported by PPATK, of which 20 are related to police officials, admitted Inspector-General Edward.

The national police department’s plans to initiate legal action against Tempo for the controversial news story’s covert art have also been reported on the magazine’s website. Aritonang told tempinteraktif.com that the report has damaged the corps’ reputation.

Source: Straits Times / Tempo