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Market Reporters Fire Back in Krakatau Shares-for-Coverage Row
Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ismira Lutfia | November 24, 2010

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mauriceg
11:23am Nov 24, 2010

“The solution is: investigate all related parties, including the investors, government officials, journalists.”

So who can be trusted to investigate?

Who can the public trust when the fourth estate, the press, is tainted. Not the police, not the judiciary, not the legislators, not the members of parliament, not the President as he has amply demonstrated, mostly by a disinclination to support the constitution, not the army, certainly not the clergy, not the business community.. etc

In other words, citizens are on their own in Indonesia. Lawlessness, corruption, injustice, joblessness, poverty, religious extremism and discrimination with no hope of resolution, is the new Indonesia.

For some of that, we have President SBY to thank, as many of the developments are happening on his watch, and he has ceased to give a damn. The state has failed to care for its citizens, and as many Muslim states with similar failings do, then feel a good excuse is to advocate people place their trust in their god. That is the standard fall-back excuse in backward Islamic countries to avoid (and excuse) governments taking responsibility for their citizens' health and wellbeing.

SirRupertbendmeover
7:28am Nov 24, 2010

Why is it whenever I hear somebody come out and "deny allegations" I instantly think they are guilty. It's no secret that most journalists in Indonesia subsidize their salary with payments for running or not running certain stories. It's not corruption you understand, just tank you money

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Jakarta. The Stock Exchange Journalist Forum on Tuesday denied allegations that some of its members had demanded shares from Krakatau Steel in exchange for positive coverage of the state company’s initial public offering this month.

Rahmat Baihaqi, the spokesman of the forum told a press conference that the allegations were fabricated and could be construed as a character assassination against journalists covering the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).

“None of us ever demanded 1,500 lots of shares. We also never demanded Rp 400 million [$44,400] to the underwriters as compensation for positive news coverage,” Baihaqi said.

The Jakarta chapter of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) last week urged the Press Council to investigate the allegations.

AJI-Jakarta chairman Wahyu Dhyatmika at the time added that the journalists had allegedly demanded 750,000 shares from Krakatau, worth Rp 637.5 million, and another report said they had asked for Rp 400 million in stock.

Rahmat said it was actually Henny Lestari, the director of Kitacomm and a PR consultant for the IPO, who had offered the shares to the journalists in return for beneficial coverage of the IPO.

“We think the offer could be considered as an attempted bribery,” he said.

Press Council member Wina Armada had been quoted by Tempointeraktive on Nov. 17 as saying that Henny had filed a complaint over alleged extortion by the journalists.

“If she felt that she was being extorted at the time, why didn’t she directly file a complaint with the police, or with the Bapepam [Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency], or with mass media? The report was made a week after the IPO. There must be something behind that,” Rahmat said.

He added the forum had given the Press Council and AJI-Jakarta three days to prove their allegations or face a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Press Council on Tuesday summoned four media organizations whose journalists are believed to have been implicated in case — Metro TV, online news portal Detik.com, the Kompas daily and the Seputar Indonesia daily.

Wahyu said the AJI had only forwarded the report and never defamed any journalist. “We received a report from a party which claimed to have been blackmailed [by the journalists] and since it did not involve any of our members, we forwarded the report to the Press Council and urged them to probe the allegations,” Wahyu told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

Adler Haymans Manurung, an independent investment adviser, and Yanuar Rizki, an independent financial and market adviser, said all documents related to the IPO should be open to public scrutiny.

“Too many odd things happened in the IPO process,” Adler said. Yanuar said certain well-connected groups may be trying cover up their “dirty tactics.”

“The solution is: investigate all related parties, including the investors, government officials, journalists.”