Two journalists from Independente and Suara Timor Lorosa'e (STL) are awaiting decision from the Dili District Court which could see them serve a 3-year suspended sentence plus fines for publishing a report without first confirming the facts with the subjects in the story. Even their source is not immune in this case and faces a year and a half prison term plus fines.
The case stems from a report in STL in early 2012 which alleged that a prosecutor in Oécusse, Jacinto Babo Soares, was receiving bribes to cover up a case involving a traffic accident which killed two people. The source of their story story was Mateus Sufa who is ironically related to the victims; they were his mother and his niece. Sufa decided to contact the media after concluding that the Oécusse prosecution wasn't taking the case anywhere. So he gave his story to Raimundus Oki of Independente to have it published. Then they also contacted Oscar Salsinha from STL to also feature this story on his paper. And so from the 30th of January the story rolled out in the local papers. The fatal mistake here for the defendants it seems is that they failed to check the story with the allegedly corrupt prosecutor Babo Soares. Babo Soares 'psychologically afflicted' by their publication decided to sue everyone involved in the publication.
So why should Jose Belo of Tempo Semanál be concerned about this story? Well, he has been publishing damaging allegations against minister Emilia Pires. In turn, minister Pires and now the deputy prime minister Fernando Lasama, insist that Jose Belo and other journalists covering this story never contacted their subjects to get their side of the story. Basically their story only served to damage individual reputation and had nothing to do with journalism. It's a defamation case, a decision which Oki, Salsinha, and even Sufa, can patiently wait.
PS: The prosecution had initially threatened the defendants with 7 years. SEVEN YEARS!!! All this for not checking your sources. That's insane given that some people with actual crimes get away with much lesser sentence.
I think, there is a slight difference between Babo Soares and Emilia Pires. In the case of Babo Soares, the journalists did not get in touch or failed to check the story with Babo Soares himself before went on to publish the story. In the case of Emilia Pires, as far as I can remember, there attempts made to get in touch with her but there were outright refusal from the Emilia Pires.
ReplyDeleteThat's not what the government is saying. So it's Jose Belo's words against Lasama and Emilia's. Either way someone's going to get their heads kicked.
DeleteWith all due respect in your protection of a government that is NOT transparent and has shown a great deal of corruption and nepotism, Mr Belo's stories have been backed by documents and fact.
DeleteAlex your protection of your "friends" in government shows you should stay in Australia; and stick to whatever you do because you are not a journalist no a fact reporter!
And, Mr Lopes are you related to the Lopes family involved with the roads and airline debacle?
DeleteMr Parsons,
DeleteI think it is unfair to attack Alex Tilman. I don't think it is good an idea to shoot the messanger. It would be better if you stay on the message. By the way, I can definitely assure you that I'm not Alex Tilman.
Jose Belo is a political activist not a journalist. All he wants to do is to destroy the reputation of some people in Timor Leste. In the process he will make himself famous. The case against Emilia Pires is innocuous. Tempo Semanal, Jose Belo et al. are conducting a trial by media against Emilia Pires. Belo et al. are spreading these allegations as if they are fact before they are even investigated. This typical of Jose Belo who I think has an ego way too big compared to his journalistic credentials. If the court finds Emilia Pires innocent, Belo should be investigated in turn and charged with defamation and hopefully given a maximum sentence of 7 years because this is not the first time.
ReplyDeleteIf that is the case, I think that's what we all have wanted. Jose Belo have done his investigation and he thought that the Minister has a case to answer but those requestes for interviews with the minister before going to public, were refused. If she is really an innocent then take Jose Belo to the court rather then holed up in her ministerial post wrapped up in the parlamentarian immunity.
DeleteThe former justice minister Lucia Lobato was the same. Requestes were made for interview but Ms Lobato refused. As I recalled it, her supporters came up with the same story as this one. In the end, it proved that Jose Belo was right and Lobato and her supporters were wrong, thus Ms Lobato ended up in Gleno prison serving her sentence under the eyes of prison officials in clothes that her husband 'supplied'. Here we could say that it is 1-0 to Jose Belo.
As far as the Finance Minister's case we can only say that the game is on. The winner will hold his/her head above their shoulders and the looser will be resting in the luxurius hotel of Gleno or Becora.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteHas the district court finalized their decision yet? Please update.
Thank you.
KA
The judges are expected to hand down their decision next week. Cheers. Alex
DeleteThe two journalists in the trafic accident in Oe-Cusse had been fined spare them from being imprisoned. I hope that journalists are been put off by that.
DeleteThe journalists did not end up with any prison term but received a fine of $150 instead, which is still pretty discouraging of freedom of speech and the press considering that they were only doing their jobs as journalist, as imperfect as it may be. Human Rights Watch also picked up their case and issued a statement calling for their acquittal.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone please give me the date of death/(execution?) of Mauk Moruk? Jill Jolliffe, Fitzroy, VIC
ReplyDelete