JAK TV News Director, Tian Bahtiar (TB), has been named a suspect by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) for allegedly receiving money in return for producing and publishing negative news content about the AGO through social and online media platforms and JAK TV.

Tian and two ther suspects − advocate Marcella Santoso (MS), lecturer and advocate Junaedi Saibih (JS) − have been alleged for obstruction of the investigation by the AGO into the handling of tin trade cases, sugar imports and acquittals (onslag) for crude palm oil (CPO) exports.

"MS, JS, together with TB as the Director of News for Jak TV were requested to prevent, obstruct or thwart directly or indirectly in AGO’s handling of the cases," Director of Investigation at the Office of Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) of the Attorney General's Office, Abdul Qohar, said Monday, April 21, 2025.

Qohar said the obstruction was carried out at the stage of investigation, prosecution and examination in court related to the corruption case of the tin commodity trade in the working ares (IUP) area of PT Timah and corruption in the import of sugar activities under the name of suspect Tom Lebong.

He said that Marcella Santoso (MS) and Junaedi Saibih (JS) paid Rp478,500,000 to Tian Bahtiar (TB) as the Director of News for Jak TV to create negative news and content that cornered the Attorney General's Office regarding the handling of the case.

"So the Attorney General's Office is considered negative and having harmed the rights of the suspects or defendants,” Qohar said.

He cited that JS created a narrative and positive opinion for MS's team of lawyers regarding the calculation of State losses which considered the calculations made by the Attorney General's Office to be incorrect and misleading. Then this was uploaded on Jak TV media.

Chairperson of the Press Council, Ninik Rahayu, said the press council would not interfere after Tian Bahtiar was named a suspect by the Attorney General's Office.

“The Press Council will respect the authority of the Attorney General's Office in handling legal cases,” Ninik said on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.

She said further that should there be sufficient evidence, it is the full authority of the Attorney General's Office to follow up on this case.

However, she emphasized that the Press Council has the authority to assess whether a media product can be said to be a journalistic work or not.

"This is an ethical authority and the one who makes the assessment is the Press Council, as per Law 40/1999," Ninik said.

She added that she and Attorney General ST Burhanuddin had agreed to mutually respect the process being carried out by each institution.