Journalist with a diplomatic mission<\/p>\n
Endy Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Is anyone out there watching this program?<\/p>\n
For the last nine months, every night at midnight Australian
\ntime, or 9 p.m. in Jakarta, Jacinta Tynan has been going on air
\nto read the regional news for the ABC Asia Pacific from its
\nstudio in Sydney.<\/p>\n
But because the channel, and therefore the program she
\nanchors, is specifically targeted at audiences outside Australia,
\nTynan wonders from time to time about the impact she and her team
\nhas, and whether they are doing the right thing.<\/p>\n
\"It's a strange kind of job to have. We broadcast live at
\nmidnight Australian time. So we sit there late at night,
\nwondering: Does anybody appreciate this? Is anybody watching
\nthis?\" she said during a recent visit to Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Of course, Tynan was underestimating her own capacity to
\ncharm, and the strength of her own news program, which packages
\nthe day's major news from countries in the region, as well as
\nsome of the biggest stories from around the world.<\/p>\n
By ABC Asia Pacific's own reckoning, the channel reaches some
\n20 million viewers worldwide, including about 600,000 in
\nIndonesia, mostly Jakarta, who can tune in via cable or satellite
\ntelevision. Its own recent research of people in high-income
\ngroups in Indonesia found that ABC Asia Pacific ranked fifth in
\nawareness of foreign television channels in a list topped by CNN
\nand MTV.<\/p>\n
Not bad for a channel that only been back on the air for 10
\nmonths since it was shut down due to budget cuts.<\/p>\n
As the name implies, ABC Asia Pacific is a subsidiary of the
\nAustralian Broadcasting Corporation. The regional channel came
\nback in December, with the help of Australian government funding.
\nABC, which already had an extensive network of correspondents in
\nthe region reporting for its Radio Australia, took up the
\nchallenge.<\/p>\n
Tynan said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was
\nbehind the initiative to revive the channel.<\/p>\n
\"The Australian government decided that television was a very
\npowerful medium to get the message across. They want to make
\nAustralia's presence known in the region.\"<\/p>\n
The decision to revive the channel should also dispel any
\nlingering doubts among people in the region about where
\nAustralia's foreign policy priority really lies.<\/p>\n
\"It shows that Australians are trying to see themselves as
\npart of the region, rather than as a separate country,\" Tynan
\nsaid, noting that this was an attitude consistently shown by the
\ngovernment, no matter what party was in control.<\/p>\n
Government-funded it may be, but the channel has complete
\neditorial independence from the powers that be in Canberra, even
\nas it carries its \"diplomatic\" mission to represent Australia and
\nits values to the people in the region.<\/p>\n
\"We still run stories critical of Prime Minister John Howard,\"
\nTynan said.<\/p>\n
Reporting on armed conflicts in Indonesia, as in Aceh and
\nPapua, the channel and the regional news program she represents
\ndoes not take sides. \"We just report when something happens. We
\ndon't hold back on what's going on there.\"<\/p>\n
\"We don't have an agenda,\" she added.<\/p>\n
Admitting that the regional news program had a tendency to
\nreport more bad news than good from countries in the region,
\nTynan said the program always tried to include some light as well
\nas positive stories, as far as possible.<\/p>\n
Tynan, who has been a journalist for a good 12 years now and
\nhas pocketed various professional awards, takes her job as a
\nnewscaster seriously, and with a strong sense of a mission, one
\nthat includes taking into account the sensitivities of people of
\ndifferent cultures.<\/p>\n
\"I see the job that I have as being quite responsible. We have
\nto bear in mind the sort of people that we're broadcasting to.\"<\/p>\n
But it's also a job that she feels gives her some privileges.<\/p>\n
\"You get to see the changes that are taking place in the
\nregion. They're encouraging, but at times they can be
\ndiscouraging too,\" she said, underlining the peace drives that
\nare now happening in the Korean peninsula and in Sri Lanka as
\nsome of the more recent examples of encouraging news.<\/p>\n
Pronouncing the names of people and places is one major
\nchallenge that Tynan grapples with every night.<\/p>\n
While she often finds this bewildering, she goes all the way
\nto make sure that she pronounces these names correctly, calling
\nfriends in the countries concerned if she has to, or consulting
\nwith fellow ABC staffers who come from these countries.<\/p>\n
She finds Indonesian names among the easiest to pronounce
\nbecause they are quite phonetic, and Thai names the most
\ndifficult.<\/p>\n
\"I thought I'd pronounced (Susilo) \"Bambang Yudhoyono\" quite
\nwell, until someone told me the other day that I hadn't,\" she
\nsaid, referring to the Indonesian chief security minister.<\/p>\n
\"I can't bear it if I get something wrong. We lose credibility
\nif we mispronounce. And we cannot afford to get it wrong because
\nwe're going into the country.\"<\/p>\n
People in Australia have come to know Tynan through her
\nreporting over the last 12 years, initially for the Seven
\nNetwork, reporting from North America and Britain, and later for
\nABC these last six years. Her television presentation experience
\nhas included ABC News in the Northern Territory, ABC national
\nbulletins, national Late Edition news and World at Noon.<\/p>\n
But with her move to ABC Asia Pacific since December, very few
\nAustralians get to see her these days, unless they travel outside
\nthe country.<\/p>\n
\"When people ask, 'where have you been?' I tell them I've gone
\nglobal.\"<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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