Maverick Indonesia

Good Luck, Ajeng!

As I arrived in the office early in the morning today, I checked my email and found a message from Ajeng Ritzki Pitakasari, Gatra’s journalist.

After being a reporter in Gatra news magazine for 3 years, Ajeng decided to tap into a new area: architecture. Yes, Ajeng has resigned from Gatra, and she is now joining I-ARCH (Indonesian Architecture), a monthly magazine focusing on architectural reportage and criticism. In I-ARCH, Ajeng covers topics related to architecture, interior, or exterior building design.

On behalf of the Mavericks, we’d like to congratulate Ajeng on her new job; and hopefully she’ll be having a great reporting adventures with I-ARCH.

Good luck, Ajeng!

Ira, Tukul, and SMS…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Akmal–a Tempo journalist who turns into a novelist. Today, I write about a TV reporter who turns into a book writer.

Yes, congratulations to Ira (Yuniarty) Lathief for her books, out now: Tukul Arwana, Kumis Lele Rejeki Arwana–an ‘unauthorized’ semi-biography of this comedian (and presenter) from Ira’s point of view as a journalist; and SMS Rayuan Gombal–a collection of flirty text messages and pick-up lines.

Ira is a reporter in RCTI’s News Feature Department, and loves to write in her spare time. You can also check out some of her opinions in her blog My School of Life.

Congrats, Ira!

KCM Community & d’Blog

Have you ever heard about Kompas Cyber Media Community - Indonesia Around The World?

As a subsidiary of Kompas.com, KCM Community is a page dedicated to KCM readers who are scattered in all parts of the world, as stated in their headline: The World Just A Click Away!

In this page, you can view light and crisp article in Kolom Kita, human interests issues in Potret, and discover delicious foods in Mak-Ples (it reminds us to Mak-Nyus’ phrase used by Bondan Winarno in his culinary show as he tasted delicious foods); but Mak-Ples here stands for ‘Makan & Plesiran’ (Eating Out & Travelling).

You can also find other interesting columns here, including Love Talk, Urban Life (by lifestyle expert, Samuel Mulia), and Jalansutra (collection of articles written by Bondan Winarno about his traveling experience).

However, good news for Indonesian bloggers all around the world: KCM Community provides a special column called d’Blog, that provides links and descriptions of Indonesian blogs! To have your blog listed here, you can fill in a form on the bottom of the page, by typing your name, your blog (and its URL), plus giving a short description about your blog.

And… voila! Welcome to the KCM Community’s blogroll!

Vigil for BBC Reporter, Alan Johnston

Yesterday evening, The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) held a vigil for Alan Johsnton, their correspondence who was abducted in the Gaza Strip. People lighted candles to express their support to Alan and also to mark World Press Freedom Day.

Alan Johnston, who has worked with the BBC since 1991, was kidnapped in Gaza City on March 12. Until today, nobody knows his status as there has been no public statement from his captors. No one can even be sure that the detained journalist is still alive.

People from all over the world have signed a petition calling for his release. Lucy Williamson, the BBC representative, who organized the vigil, got so emotional when speaking about Johsnton, while the Chairman of Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI) Heru Hendratmoko expressed his sympathy to Johsnton and his family. He said that a journalist only wants to report freely of what’s happening in each corner of the world. Thus, it’s such a shame if in doing the task, a journalist has to risk his/her life. It is just not right.

Journalist isn’t a threat to anyone.

Even though I don’t know Johnston personally, I have a high respect on him. Not everyone has the courage to venture into Gaza Strip considering the risk, but Johston was so dedicated in doing his job and fight those challenges – the right to report freely without fear or intimidation a.k.a press freedom.
Let’s pray for Alan Johston. Wherever he is… May his dedication to his profession keeps him strong and alive. Our heart goes for Johnston and his family.

Indonesian Press Publisher, Are They Qualified?

There was an interesting article in Suara Pembaruan, April 24, 2007.   The article quoted S. Leo Batubara, Vice President of The National Press Council, saying that 70% of Indonesian press publisher are unqualified.  This is indicated by the low circulation, unprofessional reporter and ignorance of the press code of conduct.

Leo Batubara emphasized the importance of improving the journalists’ work as key to solving the problem.  When the journalists can deliver good work, people will trust the media and consequently increase the circulation.  At the end of the day, it will attract more advertisers that will help ensure the sustainability of the business.

The article really worries me. If the fact that 70% of press publisher are unqualified is true, what would happen to the readers?  How can we trust the information that come from the media, while the media are the main source of information?   What if the information are misleading?  We all know that the media is a very compelling opinion former.

The question now is, what do we do about it?  What do the government and the National Press Council do about it? How can we help Indonesian media become not just entertaining, but also a reliable source of information?

International Labor Day Commemoration in Jakarta: “Journalist says NO to bribery, increase wage”

Hundreds of people from different organizations and labor unions joined a one-day-strike in front of presidential palace in Jakarta over wage issues. Maverick was invited by our journalist friend to capture the moment. Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (Independent Journalist Alliance) – AJI collaborated with Aliansi Buruh Menggugat enthusiastically expressed their stand- points with regard to labor issues.

Head of AJI Jakarta Jajang Jamaluddin says, “Lots of people have expressed their disappointment over Indonesian journalists’ professionalism. Some people see journalists as people who are easily bribed and give positive publicity in return”.

This is a sad phenomenon. AJI sees that the standard of salary of Indonesian journalists is very low. It’s only one-quarter of those fellow journalists’ salary in Malaysia and Thailand. “Because of the low salary, while there are so many basic needs to be fulfilled, saying NO to bribery is not an easy task”, Jajang says.

Therefore, AJI encourage the media organizations to raise the salary of their employees to avoid bribery. “Some journalists think that it’s acceptable to receive ‘envelope’ (money, red) from the news source. In fact, this has strong influence on journalist’s independency”, Coordinator of Labor Union AJI Jakarta Winuranto Adhi says.

Acccording to the survey conducted by AJI in 2006, the minimum wage for a journalist in Jakarta should be of Rp3.1 million. Of course the number should be adjustable in line with the inflation rate. “We can make it happens through solidarity, fight for it and by forming a union”, Winuranto adds.

Winuranto also mentions that there are lots of media organizations that suppressing its employees to form a labor union. The organizations/corporations are afraid that the employees might criticize the management and/or able to fight for their rights. AJI picks Bambang Wisudo case as an example. Bambang Wisudo was the secretary of Perkumpulan Karyawan Kompas (PKK) and the fact that he got sacked was very much reflected the union busting in the media. Wisudo was mutated to Ambon – while Syahnan Rangkuti (Head of PKK) was mutated to Padang – after PKK succeeded to persuade the management to give away 20% of employees’ shares devident.

On that sunny afternoon, Jajang told me and my colleague – Hanny - that AJI would keep encouraging Indonesian journalists to improve their skills, professionalism and to follow the code of ethics in journalism (see our previous post on journo’s code of ethics here).

“Say NO to bribery, increase the wage!”, he says at the end of the interview.

Light in a dark tunnel

Despite the low quality of the Indonesian media houses, as mentioned by S. Leo Batubara of the Press Council here, Dewi magazine recently won a silver award for the Best in Design category during the 6th Asia Media Awards 2007 held in Manila.

The event is organized by Ifra, a leading association for newspaper and media publishing, and is aimed to “acknowledge excellence among individuals and organizations that have embraced new technology, innovative thinking and creativity in the Asian region”.

Well done, Dewi. Hope that your achievement will soon be followed by others.

The Gypsy Night: Maverick’s 2007 Media Gathering

What’s a party without good companion?

Last Thursday, the Mavericks enjoyed the good companion of our journo friends in a Gypsy-themed party, held at Rumahlima, Jl. Iskandarsyah, Jakarta.

We normally meet up with our journo friends on our client’s events, and so this annual media gathering was conducted to know them better and subsequently deepen our relationship with them.

About 80 journos attending the gathering excitedly participated in the games.

Some of them also unleashed their undiscovered modeling talents in our Gypsy photo booth

While some others challenged their luck in tarot reading

***

Our regular blog readers must have read about Maverick’s ‘click of the week’ where we choose one good quality journalist blog every week to be featured in our blog. On this occasion, we also announced Andreas Harsono’s blog as the 2007 Maverick Click of The Week.

“This is an iseng-iseng project,” commented Andreas, a previous The Jakarta Post journalist, about his blog. I’d say this is a pretty serious iseng-iseng because out of 11 other eminent journo blogs previously featured in our ‘click of the week’ Andreas blog really stands out.

Congratulations again, Andreas!

***

By the end of the night, our journo friends had this to say about the event

“Maverick keren!! Sukses ye jeung, Cup ah” Ardian, Cakram
“Thx Maverick for the grand prize.”  Iwan Ungsi, Jawa Pos
“It’s good to meet old and new friends here.” Yos Mulya, Metro TV
“A night to remember.” Heri Eko Prasetyo, Rileks.com

It was indeed a night to remember for us.
Thanks again for coming. Hope you had fun as much as we did!