THE Indonesian press should raise the flag at half-mast. The sanctity of the off-the-record mechanism—the right of a source to ask reporters not to print his name and statements—is now under attack. In an appeal ruling on a slander lawsuit against Arifin Wardiyanto, head of the PT Telkom (state telephone company) Wates branch in Yogyakarta, the panel of judges issued a controversial decision.

The contents: "…off-the-record can