Newly launched 'INC' shifts gear on its Indonesia coverage
Newly launched 'INC' shifts gear on its Indonesia coverage
Helly Minarti, Contributor, Jakarta
The imbalance in news coverage about Indonesia abroad is probably
felt the strongest by the Indonesians living in the U.S.
This is one of the reasons that triggered a group of
Indonesian professionals to start an Indonesian TV channel, the
Indonesia News Channel (INC), which has been on air for about a
year.
Airing from San Francisco, INC first went on air for about 30
minutes a week, reaching only a limited area in California. Now,
the privately owned TV channel has doubled the air time to one
hour, with more coverage of several cities both on the west and
east coasts.
"We were indeed tired of the bad publicity in the U.S. media
about Indonesia, but we also noted the Indonesian Diaspora in the
U.S. as potential viewers," said Hengki Koentjoro.
With his wife, Lana, Hengky gave birth to INC in 2004, not
long after he moved back to the U.S. in 2002.
They launched INC as an extension of Annext Studios, a design
house for web and graphic designs. Soon they set up a small team
in Jakarta to cover the local stories up close, and generated ad
revenue mostly from companies in the U.S. owned by Indonesians.
"Our target is to go on air 24 hours a day, seven days a
week," said program director Oddie Octaviadi in a recent press
conference in Jakarta.
Whilst launching the channel in Indonesia last week, they were
also here to hunt for potential investors who are interested in
helping them achieve the 24/7 air time target in 2006.
INC is now airing half the programs in Bahasa Indonesia (with
English subtitles) and half in English (with Bahasa Indonesia
subtitles).
"Many Indonesians have been living here for ages, and they
miss listening to Bahasa Indonesia news since English has become
their main language outside the home," said Oddie.
It is not easy to estimate the exact number of Indonesians
living in the U.S.
"There are 7000 to 8000 registered in San Francisco alone,
probably almost 100,000 registered Indonesians across U.S. I have
no idea though about the illegal ones," said Hengki who studied
cinematography at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa
Barbara and lived in the U.S. for about a decade.
He later came back to Indonesia and worked at a production
house.
This background proved to be useful as he and Lana set up the
TV channel, which still has an amateurish feel about it when seen
on the screen, but for sure, improvement is underway.
Apart from featuring headline news from Indonesia and
entertainment, INC also incorporates local news.
"It's in a way functioning as a community TV. People love to
watch themselves on the screen thus we cover all events held by
the Indonesian community here, from Independence Day to Idul
Fitri, Christmas, Waisak and others," said Hengki.
INC also does profiles on successful Indonesians in the U.S.,
and just two months ago, they started a pilot project Postcards
From Indonesia, a program featuring travel, tourism, arts and
culture of the archipelago, partly targeting American tourists.
"We also plan to screen sinetron (television soap opera) as we
have had some requests to do so," said Hengki. Sinetron is short
for sinema elektronik or television drama.
In such a melting pot as the U.S., community TV has bound
ethnic communities together.
The biggest is run by the Hispanic community which has four
channels, followed by the Filipino community, the Vietnamese and
Eastern Europeans -- all with their own TV stations.
"I think the Indonesians living in the U.S. are the type A
level. They are educated, intellectuals, former students and
people who run their own business. So, I'm optimistic that INC
will grow," said Hengki.
INC now also can be accessed online on www.IndoNewsChannel.com.