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36 years and counting
Today we thank all our stakeholders — including our readers and business partners — who have stayed with us through thick and thin, enabling us to continue to serve you.
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Hear no evil: A woman passes a mural showing antihoax messages in Rawa Buntu, South Tangerang, Banten, on April 1. In the lead up to the election, voters have been barraged with a flood of hoaxes and fake news spreading through social media platforms. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
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pril 25 is the anniversary of The Jakarta Post, which rolled out its first edition 36 years ago. Young visitors to our office express amazement at the ancient-looking pages in our documentation center; to their generation, we are more familiar through Facebook, Instagram and other platforms than through our print version.
While we continue to adapt to the digital era, daily routines and the training of cub reporters largely stick to guidelines of old-fashioned journalism. This is precisely because, amid tight competition and a 24/7 flood of information with higher risks of mistakes, we feel the mounting need for the discipline of verification, the core of our craft.
Today we thank all our stakeholders — including our readers and business partners — who have stayed with us through thick and thin, enabling us to continue to serve you.
Daily we face the challenge of living up to the classic journalistic tradition of separating facts from opinions. Talk is cheap while facts are sacred, we keep reminding ourselves, as we sift truth from noise, propaganda and hearsay.
As we now bask in freedom, the main challenge has become social media and its rapid flow of content, along with too many people who are too lazy to check and recheck sources. Anything emotional is much more appealing than dry facts. This “post-truth” era has confused all in discerning truth from lies. Clarifications come too late, when the damage is long done by misleading reporting based on the blurring of right and wrong.
In the last five years, social media has become the most effective tool for spreading lies and character assassination of any possible target. Being protected by civil liberties, the abuse of social media platforms has dragged our democracies to the brink of dangerous cliffs. Gullible individuals that quickly fall for often questionable content of doom and gloom have turned to strong-looking leaders who promise simple ways out of noisy democracy.
This is where journalism plays a crucial role. Consistent loyalty to truth-seeking efforts, free from vested interests, is the foundation of credibility. Credibility remains the jewel in the crown of any media organization, regardless of revenue or popularity from “top hits” easily generated from publishing gossip. It is credibility that enables a media outlet to survive whatever platform, guiding readers and citizens to the best decisions that affect them. This is why the Post believes quality journalism will never die, despite technological changes; it remains the antidote to the rampant spread of hoaxes and misinformation.
We will continue to do what we do best, to tell it like it is; whether it is Soeharto resigning — with our iconic headline “I quit” — or the recent cover story titled “Five more years”, while others are still waiting for the official tally from the April 17 elections.
A healthy democracy needs loyalty to quality journalism. Improving our craft has been far more challenging than keeping up with technological progress. The support of all our stakeholders has enabled us to get this far and will be with us in the years ahead. Thank you!
