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Indonesian journalist guilty of defamation

JAKARTA, May 17 (UPI) -- Gunawan Muhamad, editor of Indonesia's Koran Tempo newspaper, Monday was convicted of defaming a businessman and ordered to apologize.

The East Jakarta District Court said in its ruling that Muhamad, along with Koran Tempo and the PT Tempo Inti Harian publishing firm, must apologize to businessman Tomy Winata.

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Judge Z.A. Sangadji said the defendants broke the law and "besmirched the good name of Winata," adding that the apology must be printed on the front page of Tempo and other large dailies.

Winata filed a libel suit against Muhamad -- the co-founder of Tempo weekly magazine -- for defamation over a March 12 article entitled "Don't let the country fall into the hand of thugs/T.W." T.W. is the Winata's initials.

It was the latest of several defeats for the Tempo publishing group in its ongoing legal battle against Winata.

Tempo weekly's chief editor Bambang Harimurti, along with journalists Iskandar Ali and Ahmad Taufik, are on trial in separate courtrooms for the same article.

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