RI attracting foreign media

RI attracting foreign media

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is drawing greater international media interest, judging from the growing number of foreign journalists working in the country, particularly over the past year.

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents' Club (JFCC) said yesterday that it now has more than 60 members. The most recent additions include correspondents from the Cable News Network (CNN), the South China Morning Post, the soon to be published Asia Times newspaper and the financial news service AFX-Asia.

"The growth in our membership demonstrates that Indonesia is acquiring a much higher profile on both the regional and the world stage," Reuters' bureau chief John Owen-Davies, the newly appointed JFCC president, said in a statement.

"But it is important to have a group like JFCC to encourage the government to provide more information on its policies to overseas audiences," Owen-Davies said.

At a recent JFCC annual congress, Owen-Davis was appointed chairman of the club, taking over from John McBeth of the Far Eastern Economic Review. The new vice presidents are Bernard Estrade of Agence France Presse and Nobuo Fukuda of Asahi Simbun. Greg Earl of the Australian Financial Review is the new treasurer.