'Pantau' monthly magazine stop publication for bankruptcy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Financial constraints have caused local magazine Pantau to stop publication, adding to the list of print media falling to tight competition in the industry.

The director of the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI), Goenawan Mohammad, owner of the monthly magazine, announced the decision on Tuesday.

"It is a difficult decision for me. This is a good magazine and the only one of its kind in Indonesia. But we need money and need parties that could subsidize us," senior journalist Goenawan said in a press statement.

The February 2003 edition, which hit newsstands early this month, was the last appearance of the magazine.

Pantau specialized in media evaluation and other activities to support a free and responsible press in the current era of reform.

Press freedom has been flourishing since the fall of dictator Soeharto in May 1998, with the number of print media surpassing 1,300. But the economic crisis, which remains unabated, and the arrival of more TV channels have halved the figure.

Pantau began publication in 2000 and provided readers with in- depth reports on issues related to media development and its condition.

Goenawan underlined that such reports needed a lot of funding and the magazine had managed to finance its activities for the two years since its birth.

He apologized to subscribers of the magazine and promised to return the retainer fee of the unpublished edition of the magazine.

"We will settle the debts issue immediately and return both retainer and advertising fees for the unpublished edition," said Goenawan, who founded leading news magazine Tempo.

Regarding subsequent layoffs affecting Pantau employees, Goenawan said they would be transferred to other working units of ISAI, such as 68H Radio Station, the Islam Liberal Network, the cultural center Utan Kayu Theater, Kalam cultural journal, Kalam bookstore and Lontar Galery.

Media evaluation activities would continue, but on a smaller scale for publication every three months in the form of a newsletter, the original form of Pantau, said Goenawan.

"We are still discussing the design of the newsletter," he added.

Pantau was published as a newsletter in 1999, and in March 2001 with support from the Ford Foundation and the Partnership for Governance Reform, it was redesigned as a magazine.

Pantau is the first magazine to introduce an ombudsman to accommodate readers' criticisms and complaints regarding the magazine's reports.

In its last issue, which was 25-pages long, the magazine reported on life in war-torn Aceh as its feature article.