DENPASAR

Bali Governor I Made Mangku Pastika has called for an end to his long-running feud with the island’s biggest Indonesian-language newspaper, Bali Post.

Speaking at the weekend, Pastika said he regarded the conflict as now over. It began after the Post allegedly misquoted comments from Pastika about a violent inter-village land dispute in Klungkung last year.

Last month the Denpasar District Court found in Pastika’s favour and the paper was obliged to carry full-page adverts apologising and retracting the claims in its own pages and those of other local publications.

“I’ve already forgiven them, so there is no need for Bali Post to ask for forgiveness,” Pastika said on Saturday.

Pastika said he considered the feud between the governor and Bali’s biggest and longest-running paper to be counterproductive, so he called on the paper not to appeal the recent civil case decision by taking the matter to the High Court.

“I’ve already forgiven, so do not appeal, because if there is an appeal it will continue as a legal case. The legal teams will get involved again. As everything has been forgiven we are all done up to this point. Everything is finished,” he said.

Pastika said there were more important issues in Bali that should be getting his attention, rather than a conflict with sections of the media.