"This study aims to examine the impacts of secular nationalist and Islamic-based populist communication strategies advanced by Jokowi and Prabowo on the Indonesian media and journalists' freedoms during the presidential elections of 2019. To address this topic, this study uses the qualitative methods of document review and in-depth interview of four senior editors of Indonesian news channels including Kompas TV, CNN Indonesia, TV one and INews TV. This study uses thematic analysis to analyse the qualitative data." (Abstract)