Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

(SIUPP) from the Department of Information. Besides
this, they were successful in fighting for the Press
Law No.40/1999 which guarantees the freedom of
the media in searching and gaining information and
freedom from being censored. The mass media can
now organize without control by officials. There is
also Broadcast Law No.32/2002 that guarantees the
freedom of the electronic media. This freedom gave
birth to the Indonesia Broadcast Commission (KPI) in
2003, an independent organization that allocates the
frequency waves. Its members come from a selection of
the mass media, NGOs and academics. The term of the
Commission is three years.
In addition, the quantity of media increased rapidly
after 1998, from 289 newspapers in 1997 to 1,700 in
1998. There were 888 radio stations in 1999 but this
increased to 1,013 in 2003. This is a sign of awakening
freedom. But after one year the numbers of press and
radio gradually decreased or changed ownership owing
to financial and economic problems. Now, the numbers
from the Indonesia Newspaper Publishers Association
(SPS) record that only 500 press remain in Indonesia
with a daily circulation of five million countrywide.
Almost half of this number is occupied by two media
tycoons, the Java Pos Group and the Kompas Gremedia
Group.
The Java Pos Group is a rising star in the mass media
circle of Indonesia because it ranks second in the whole
country. It bought and took over the press in the
provinces—in Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Kalimantan and
Bali - that faced financial problems. In 2003, it had a
network of 74 local papers. The Java Pos Group has its
head office in Surabaya in East Java. The paper in each
city presents its own content and sells to surrounding
areas. It is known that the papers that begin with
“Radar” are papers of the Java Pos Group, whether
Radar Bali, Radar Marang, Radar Yogya, etc. The Java
Pos Group is the second most profitable media group
after the Kompas Group that was set up in Jakarta and is
the largest mainstream press in Indonesia. Besides print
media, the Java Pos Group also has two TV stations,
RTV Riau and JTV, which were established in 2001.
Besides the wide expansion of the local media, the Java
Pos Group has also political connections. Dahlan Iskan,
the CEO of the Java Pos Group, sees the importance
of a political future. He decided to send an able news
executive of Java Pos, Arif Affandi, to the mayoral
campaign of Surabaya and join Bambang Dwi Haryono
from the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle. In
the last election, Bambang Dwi Haryano won as Mayor
of Surabaya and Arif Affandi is an important advisor to
SOCIAL JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY
the Mayor of Surabaya.
415
Other local papers that are held by the mainstream press
in Indonesia are held by the Kompas Gramedia Group,
founded in 1999. The publications in the Kompas
Group are known as the “Tribuns” such as Tribun
Jabar, Tribun Batam, Tribun Kaltim, Tribun Timur,
etc. Others are under the execution of companies
within the net of P.T. Indonesia Primamedia, such as
Selembi Indonesia, Bangka Pos, Surya Surabaya, Ban
Jarmasin Post (Banjarmasin City), Pos Kupang (Kupang
City), Metro Banjar (Banjarmasin City), and Sriwijaya
Post (Palembang city). An informal figure says that the
Kompas Group holds more than one hundred and fifty
newspapers in its net. Some were obtained by buying
shares and being stuffed with funds. Others were newly
set up.
After 1998, it seemed that the media business boomed.
The figures for advertisement in all kinds of media leapt.
Competition among the local media and between local
media and current media were intense.
The number of newspaper readers is 28,977,000, based
on a survey by Neilsen Media Research - Media Index,
Press 2003, and Media Scene in six major provinces of
Indonesia; namely Greater Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang,
Greater Surabaya, Medan and Makassar.
Table 2: Advertising Expenditure by Type of
Media 1999-2004 (Rp Billion).
Media 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Total 5,612 7,889 9,795 13,298 19,093 24,076
Newspaper 1,415 1,982 2,593 3,502 5,325 6,684
Magazine 194 308 422 521 682 764
Tabloid 98 140 192 246 310 332
Television 3,449 4,933 6,057 8,383 11,660 14,983
Radio 187 257 329 413 491 595
Outdoor 269 269 202 232 625 719
(* Sources : Nielsen Media Research – AIS, Media Scene.)
In addition to interviewing two papers in the net of these
two big groups, I also interviewed three major local presses,
Kadaulatan Rakyat (Yogyakarta), Pikiran Rakyat (West
Java), and Waspada (North Sumatra) that have not been
taken over by the afore-mentioned two groups and are no
less popular in their locales than the mainstream media.
Kadaulatan Rakyat
This is the oldest newspaper in Indonesia—set up in
Yogyakarta in 1945 and distributed all over Central
Java. Its faithful readers are over forty years old.
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows