Inside Indonesia Board chair Jemma Purdey. (thejakartapost.com/Bayu Widhiatmoko)

Inside Indonesia, a magazine focusing on Indonesia created by academicians and scientists living in Australia has digitized its archives, including articles that had strongly criticized the New Order government under president Soeharto.

Inside Indonesia Board chair Jemma Purdey told thejakartapost.com in Jakarta on Monday that because its early issues had become a treasure of knowledge, an initiative to digitize the magazine began in 2010.  

 "There are issues that are not available in the library, so we tried to get the privately owned copies even in Indonesia," Purdey said during a community meeting at Coffee Academy, adding that it had been 30 years since the first issue was published. The magazine was solely published online beginning in 2007.  

The early issues of the magazine focused on Indonesia and were written by Indonesians. Since going online, its readership has expanded.

Purdey said that the digitization would allow people in Indonesia to read old issues that had been banned by the New Order regime.

According to Purdey, Inside Indonesia has broadened its products to not only texts and photos but also videos. He added that the magazine was also focusing on covering Indonesian views on Australia, an initiative overseen by film producer Nick Baker.

Baker said that both Indonesians and Australians did not have much knowledge about the lives of their respective neighbors. "Indonesians'€™ views of Australians are influenced by the political news, in fact they rarely know about how everyday Australian live. And vice versa, Australians usually just know Indonesia as Jakarta and Bali," Baker said.

In the future, Inside Indonesia hoped for more contributions in the form of writings and videos, said Purdey. (bbn)(+)

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