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MOB STORMS OFFICE OF NUANSA POS PALU DAILY
JAKARTA (JP Online/Pacific Media Watch): A group of thugs claiming to be the relatives of local businessman Erwin
Sumampouw stormed the offices of the Nuansa Pos Palu daily on Saturday, only a day after the newspaper ran an article
that the attackers claimed had defamed the businessman.
The attack came less than three weeks after an unidentified mob attacked the office of the Sinar Indonesia Baru daily in
Medan on April 22.
The incident in Ruslan Sangadji, Palu, Central Sulawesi, began when the daily published a story on Friday alleging that
the businessman, who is also the chairman of a business association in the city, extorted a backhander amounting to 16
percent of the value of a project from a contractor. According to the story, the backhander was to be paid to officials
in the Palu administration to facilitate the implementation of the project.
Erwin, the chairman of the Palu Business Association (GAPENSI), was asked to comment on the story and these comments
were published on Saturday on the same page. In the afternoon, however, some 40 thugs riding on public minibuses arrived
at the offices of the newspaper on Jl. Halmahera in East Palu. They threatened the journalists and warned them not to
publish any further damaging stories on Erwin.
They also condemned the newspaper for what they said was its defamation of Erwin, whom some members of the mob claimed
was their relative. They kicked over chairs and desks in the building, and one of them assaulted Hanafi Saro, an editor
of the newspaper.
"One of them grabbed my collar. Fortunately, I remained calm so that nothing worse happened," said Hanafi in his office
on Saturday, adding that some of the attackers were carrying offensive weapons, including machetes.
The daily's editor-in-chief, Bayu Alexander, revealed that he received a number of threatening phone calls on Friday
night. "We will file a complaint with the police," he said.
Jafar G. Bua, the chairman of Palu's Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), criticized the use of violence in
dealings with the press, saying that this approach had to be combated.
Separately, Erwin denied that he had hired thugs to storm the newspaper's offices.
"I wasn't necessary for me to ask them to attack the newspaper. I availed of my right to reply and my response was
published on Saturday, and that's enough," he said.
He further claimed that he had no knowledge of who the people claiming to be his relatives actually were.
+++niuswire
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