Reporting Indonesia (book review)

Title : Reporting Indonesia – The Jakarta Post Story 1983-2008.
Author ; Bill Tarrant
Published ; Equinox Publishing, Jakarta – Singapore, 2008.
Size; Paperback, 267 pages & index.

Comment
The American author is a journalist who is traveling on holiday through Indonesia and then gets a job at the start up of the Jakarta Post newspaper – as they want native writers with appropriate skills. Friends of President Soeharto want to set up an English newspaper to present Indonesia’s news to the world, rather than have only international agencies spread random or biased news to the world. They are set up by owners of other newspapers and struggle with first translating & remolding news from Jakarta Indonesian language newspapers. Eventually they get advertising and into the black. A change of editor sees it is time for them to collect their own news and so on. The paper has strong emphases to have reliable news and eventually foreign services start quoting from Jakarta Post. Long issues with Soeharto (and post Soeharto) on censorship see their style to report on the news, and bury insightful comments within the body of the news.
The editor sees the trend in growth of NGO’s and makes friends such that the eventual overthrow of Soeharto as initiated by NGO’s & students were followed closely. The last part of the book briefly touches on main stream stories that were covered / first published by Jakarta post which have strongly influenced Indonesia’s modern social outlook. About 2/3 readers are now non expatriate, and a new English newspaper competitor has appeared.
The book contains many interesting personal & amusing side stories and insight to the characters behind the newspaper.