Correspondent's Notebook

New newspaper looks to shake up Indonesian press

3 October 2008

Backers of an ambitious plan to launch a new newspaper in Jakarta are hoping to turn Indonesia’s press on its head.

The presenter of Radio Australia’s Asia Pacific program, Linda Lopresti, looks at the planned launch of the Jakarta Globe.

Ambitious or foolhardy?

Launching a new newspaper in the face of global circulation woes in a medium which is facing death’s door, is not always an endeavour worth pursuing.

But when your newspaper has the financial backing of one of Indonesia’s richest and most powerful businessmen maybe it’s not as foolhardy as it seems.

Media, property, infrastrcuture and banking tycoon James Riady is financially backing the Jakarta Globe – an English langauge newspaper to rival the stalwart Jakarta Post.

The 48-page full colour newspaper hasn’t even hit the newstands yet but it’s already attracted the attention of some stellar media personalities.

It has an impressive editorial leadership team.

The launch editor is David Plott, a former editor in chief at the influential Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong.

Bhimanto Suwastoyo is the deputy chief editor after having spent 23 years at Agence France Press.

Bhim is considered one of Indonesia’s most articulate and respected journalists. And his appointment is sure to garner the Globe respect from media observers who have questioned whether the paper will have the necessary insight and perspective to speak to an Indonesian audience.

And then there’s Lin Neumann, the former executive editor of the Hong Kong Standard, and now the Globe’s senior editorial advisor.

Together, they’ll bring James Riady’s dream to fruition – part of that dream is to leave the Jakarta Post for dead.

Lin Neumann is diplomatic about the Globe’s ambitions.

We have alot of respect for the Post, he tells me, but the owners of this paper want to put out an international quality newspaper larger in scope and in circulation than the Jakarta Post.

Let’s spice up the market he says.

And the Indonesian market could do with some spicing up.

Under the 32 year reign of former dictator Suharto, press freedoms were savagely curtailed.

And despite a flowering of print and other news media outelts since the fall of Suharto in 1998, Indonesian news and analytical reporting often demonsrates how far it’s got to go.

But the days of traditional authoritarianism are long gone, says Lin Neumann.

We will ask the tough questions he tells me.

He says the Globe will have a dedicated team of investigate reporters to press the hard issues and that will include any stories critical of owner James Riady and his influential Lippo Group.

I’m skeptical.

But he assures me editorial independence is paramount at the Globe – it’s a real newspaper he says and James Riady knows that.

Stories will be reported and opinions will be expressed, Lin Neumann says. The Jakarta Globe is not a mouthpiece for the Lippo Group or any other business which helps to finance the newspaper, he says.

So just when will this much anticipated new kid on the block be revealed to Indonesia and to the world via an integrated website?

Lin Neumann laughs heartily. I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you, he jokes.

Rumour has it by the end of this month, the Jakarta Globe will hit Indonesia’s newstands competing directly with the Jakarta Post.

Stay tuned, the Indonesian press is going to get a whole lot more interesting.