Removing Barriers, Increasing Effectiveness - amarc

Chapter 13: Women as Producers of Information. IndonesiaExperience. 58Women as Producers of InformationSince 1998 Indonesia has entered the reformation era and liberated itself fromthe repressive authoritarian New Order Regime. Reforms have also occurred inthe world of media in Indonesia as shown by the emergence of many media invarious forms such as print, audio and audiovisual. However, have these mediagiven access to the public's voice? In reality, most media have notaccommodated the public's voice. Hence, what is required is to let the societybecome the producers of information.Medium like a community radio becomes the most appropriate media tobroadcast public's interest. In Indonesia, there are about 600 community radios.However, the question remains whether community radios have been fully usedby groups of people, including women, which are always marginalized. Theresult of questionnaire distributed to a number of community radios has showedthat women's involvement in the management of community radios is stillinsufficient. The same condition is found in their program; only a few numbers ofprograms are dedicated purposely for women. In most cases, the programs aremore about recipes, health and beauty problems than about issues on women'srights.Nevertheless, a group of women now has the initiative to use radio as a mediumto disseminate issues on women's rights, among other Women Voice Radio inPariaman, West Sumatra and Women Journal Radio Program. The former is acommunity radio; the later is a producer of mini feature program broadcastedthrough all radio networks in Indonesia. Women Journal Radio Programcurrently has been broadcasted weekly on 183 radio stations in Indonesia.Women Voice Radio in Pariaman, West SumatraRadio Suara Perempuan (Women Voice Radio) in Pariaman, West Sumatra, wasfounded by Nurhayati Kahar. At the beginning, she was concerned about a lotnumber of violence cases happened to women in her region. Therefore, shefounded Institution for Victims of Violent Acts to Women and Children, which hasbeen legally registered since 2002. To spread the campaign to against thatviolence, they choose community radio as their way.She thinks that violence to women never comes to surface because the culture ofshame is still very strong. For instance, there are many cases of rape that all this58Presentation to AMARC 9 World Conference. Jordania, November 14, 2006. Ade Tanasia (Programmanager (Media) at the Combine Resource Institution, IndonesiaAMARC Community Radio Social Impact Assessment 2007 Page 78 of 128