Tempo is Indonesia's largest-circulation weekly newsmagazine. Founded in 1971 by Gunawan Mohamad, the magazine was best known for hard-hitting reportage that often got its editors in trouble with President Suharto's authoritarian New Order regime. Tempo was respected for standing up to censorship and to the draconian regulations that regulated Indonesia's quiescent media. Tempo was banned in June 1994 for a report on Indonesia's purchase of thirty-nine East German warships and the corruption surrounding the deal. Tempo, along with two other magazines, was arbitrarily closed under a 1984 decree that allowed the government to revoke the license of any media organ whose coverage was not "responsible." The closure and the government's two attempts to have loyal allies of Suharto purchase the magazine, which is 60 percent owned by the workers, provoked violent demonstrations among its 400 staff, trade unions, and other supporters of press freedom.
On 3 May 1995, in a surprising display of judicial independence, a court overruled the ban, stating that under Indonesia's press law, censorship and press bans were illegal. Although the court ordered the government to renew Tempo's license, the government refused and the Supreme Court eventually overturned the lower court's decision, effectively banning Tempo. Undeterred, the editors began publishing Tempo on the Internet. Tempo resumed publication following Suharto's resignation in May 1998. In 1990 it became the first publicly traded print media company in Indonesia, and it expanded rapidly. In addition to Tempo magazine, there is now an English edition, a daily newspaper, Tempo Koran, and an online edition, Tempo Interactive (www.tempointeractive.com). Tempo remains the most widely read and respected newsmagazine in the country.
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