TheJakartaPost
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The ‘Post’ lauded for commitment to democracy, holding powerful to account
Forty years on, observers and government officials alike have noted how The Jakarta Post has not only become the world’s window into Indonesia, but has also helped bring the global agenda to local readers.
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Forty years on, observers and government officials alike have noted how 'The Jakarta Post' has not only become the world’s window into Indonesia, but has also helped bring the global agenda to local readers. (Shutterstock/File)
I
n its four decades on the country’s media landscape The Jakarta Post has chronicled Indonesia’s fledgling democracy, leading it to become the country’s leading English-language news outlet, bridging global and national interests.
With the curtain rising on the country’s most ambitious election year in recent memory, the onus is once again on the Post to go back to the basics of being bold and independent – qualities it has honed over five election cycles and four presidents.
The Post, which turned 40 on Tuesday, owed its formation to the initiative of several key figures during then-president Soeharto’s notorious New Order regime, people who were unhappy with the unbalanced coverage Indonesia received in foreign newspapers.
Forty years on, observers and government officials alike have noted how the Post has not only become the world’s window into Indonesia, but has also helped bring the global agenda to local readers.
“Unlike back then, there are now an abundance of [Indonesian] correspondents working for foreign papers. But, the only Indonesian media to bring Indonesian news to the world, be it good or bad, is the Post,” Yose Rizal Damuri, executive director of the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said on Thursday.
Noting how many Indonesians had a tendency to concern themself only with the country’s domestic policies, Yose said that the Post played a key role in helping to bring Indonesians up to speed with international developments.
At a time when Indonesia is quickly becoming a key player in global politics through its Group of 20 presidency last year and its chairmanship of the ASEAN bloc this year, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi lauded the Post for being “instrumental” in disseminating Indonesia’s foreign policy to the world.
