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New Role for the Press in Indonesia: A Study of the Newly Established Magazine Pantau

Malmö: Malmö University, Communication for Development, Thesis (2001), 50 pp.

Contains bibliogr. pp. 46-48

"In Indonesia press freedom is still just a few years old. When president Suharto fell in May 1998 the democratisation process begun. Hundreds of new newspapers and magazines were established, but many of them had difficulties to survive for economic reasons. The well-established daily newspapers and magazines seem to be the ones who will survive. One of the newly established magazines is Pantau. The name means to monitor in English and the purpose of this monthly media magazine is to elevate the standard of journalism in Indonesia and to institutionalise media freedom. Its target group is journalists, public relation officials and advertising executives. The whole magazine is written in the local language Bahasa Indonesia. During August to October 2001 I was in Jakarta to do a Minor Field Study about Pantau and media’s role in the democratisation process of Indonesia. Together with Maria Nilson I interviewed the journalists of Pantau and the readers of the magazine. I focused on the content, while she focused on the layout of the magazine. The aim of my study is to understand the role of the media in a democratisation process, drawing conclusions from the experience of Pantau. Can Pantau start a debate which indirectly strengthens democracy and press freedom? Does it reach the target group and is this the right group which can be influential in the democratisation process?" (Abstract)