Billy on the skids

Unspun guesses that one could see significance in Lippo Group Executive Billy Sindoro being indicted in the Anti Corruption Court on International  Anticorruption Day Tuesday.

Earlier Unspun had wondered how the Lippo Group publication Jakarta Globe would cover the trial. Would they even bother to report it? Would they disclose their common interest?

To their credit they reported the hearing and they also DID disclose that “First Media and the Jakarta Globe are associated companies of the Lippo Group.”

Their story also had one fact that the Post did not have – when the trial will resume. Its a small piece of information but one that’s useful to anyone who’s interested in the progress of the case. But the post had a bit of a gem in its last paragraphs:

Billy’s lawyer, BS Humphrey Djemat said they would not argue the charges.

However, he underlined that Billy had not held a position at any of Lippo Group’s companies since June 8, 2008.

So we are now to believe that Billy was unemployed since June and that Billy is now meeting Iqbal and allegedly paying him Rp500 million of his own money…for what? Curiouser and curiouser this case gets.

How did the Post do compared to the Globe in reporting this hearing so far? Well, Unspun thinks they were both quite equal but you decide for yourself and let the newspaper owners and editors know what your think with the survey below of the Post‘s  (Page 1) and the Globe‘s (Page A6) coverage (you may also want to see how both papers fared overall in this earlier posting):

So much for straight reporting. Now, what about going for the story beyond the surface, as good papers should?

There are some very interesting questions that the Billy Sindoro indictment raises, mainly:

1. Was Billy, as his defense counsel seem to suggest, acting onhis on, a rogue element within the Lippo Group? If so what are his motives to bribe Iqbal, if he acted alone?
2. If Billy bribed the KPPU to insert in an Injunction (No. 5) in its  verdict shouldn’t the KPPU review its invstigation and the investigation in other cases?
3. How is it that the Central Jakarta District Court could uphold KPPU’s verdict in its ruling on 2 December?

Now that we have some real competition among the English language media which publication would be the first to practice real journalism and ask the difficult questions, rather than carry out spot reporting?

(disclosure: Unspun‘s posts may involve clients now and again but all posts here reflect Unspun‘s personal opinions and not his clients’. Neither are posts made  on the behest of clients. In fact, they usually think that Unspun‘s a bit daft when he speaks to them about New Media)