Santoso aims to rule the airwaves
Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Santoso had no experience in running a radio station, but when he and his friends founded a radio news network, 68H, they ended a 30-year monopoly over Indonesia's airwaves by the state-run Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI).
Initially set up as 68H on April 29, 1999 and renamed as Radio 68H in 2002, the radio station recently marked its fourth year of broadcasting independent news.
68H began humbly, with a group of people at the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) who were concerned by the poor quality of radio journalism in Indonesia. Santoso decided that his mission was to improve it.
"None of us at ISAI had a background in radio journalism," he confided, "yet we thought about it, as radio journalism had suffered the most under the Soeharto regime."
Around 80 percent of Indonesia's population of 210 million have access to radios, compared to about 65 percent who have access to televisions. On top of this, not everyone could read, Santoso explained.
Soeharto knew this and so he kept a tight lid on radio stations. It was difficult to obtain a broadcasting license for a radio station and even with a license, it was still forbidden to broadcast independent news.
Radio stations across Indonesia were obliged to relay RRI news, a condition which stifled the creative freedom of radio reporters over the years.
So, when Soeharto's regime fell in 1998, ISAI established the 68H radio news network a year later, with Santoso as its President Director. He said 68H was formed with the intention to broadcast independent and critical radio news and to reach out to listeners all over Indonesia.
At the beginning, only 14 stations -- mainly in large cities -- used 68H news items.
"At our studio, we converted news into a digital format," Santoso said, referring to MP3 files, which can be downloaded over the Internet.
The audio files are then sent to radio stations across the country, including the far-flung provinces of Aceh and Papua.
But the radio station is not restricted to one-way traffic. In receiving reports from its radio partners in other provinces, 68H has the chance to broadcast news as it happens in the regions.
"We didn't have to send our reporters up there or have our own stringers," said Santoso.
This partnership came in handy when East Timor claimed independence from Indonesia in 1999. Although many reporters fled the ensuing violence, local reporters kept sending in stories to 68H. People across the country knew what was happening in East Timor -- in real time.
Santoso has another tale to tell: In Papua, he helped install a satellite dish and a digital receiver, and linked them up to Radio Suara Kasih Agung, a local radio station that joined with 68H.
"Together with eight radio workers from the city, we gathered together, hearts pounding, waiting for a signal," he wrote in an article appearing on the Inside Indonesia website last year.
"Suddenly, the broadcaster's voice sprung forth from the small radio -- 'This is the latest news from Radio 68H News Office'. We were all surprised and also relieved. There was good reception for radio broadcasts from Jakarta."
He said his Papuan friends were even happier when they heard the voice of Tom Beanal, the vice president of the Papua Council Presidium, who spoke of the Papuan's desire for independence.
"Our friends who were huddled around the radio had rarely or had never heard their idol on the radio before. And on that day, Tom Beanal's voice was not only heard in Jayapura, but throughout Indonesia. Through Radio 68H, the voice of a person in Jayapura was heard in Banda Aceh, Manado, Kupang and other cities," Santoso wrote.
The name 68H was taken from its address, Jl. Utan Kayu 68H, an unpretentious street in East Jakarta.
Utan Kayu is also home to a group of intellectuals, artists and writers, who share various thoughts and concerns related to democracy and human rights.
Following the closure of the weekly magazines Tempo and Editor, and Detik tabloid by Soeharto in 1994, journalists from the closed publications and those who were blacklisted by Soeharto's administration gathered under ISAI at Jl. Utan Kayu, and the Utan Kayu community was born.
Santoso was one of them.
The magazine he worked for, Forum, had been pressured to fire reporters who were members of the banned Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), and so Santoso lost his job.
For Santoso, life after Forum was about working underground.
He and his friends continued to write articles, which ISAI collected and released as books. "Actually, the books are like magazine cover stories; the only difference was that, to print them, we didn't have to worry about a press license," Santoso said.
ISAI's books provided a critical view on the country's political landscape, which prompted the Soeharto administration to ban their publications.
In 1997, when the economic crisis weakened Soeharto's regime, the push for democracy spilled over into the mainstream media, which eventually led to the 1998 reform movement that toppled Soeharto.
His downfall also heralded open foreign support for ISAI. The Asia Foundation and Media Development Loan Fund, both U.S.-based, independent grant organizations, helped 68H on its feet with a US$300,000 grant.
In 2000, 68H began to dispatch its news via satellite, as many stations had trouble downloading long radio programs over the Internet. And in July 2002, 68H became a full-fledged radio station with its own frequency for airing its news programs and talk shows, and was renamed Radio 68H.
Today, around 250 stations broadcast Radio 68H news items. Abroad, Radio 68H news is broadcasted by Hilversum Radio in the Netherlands, SBS in Australia and East Timorese radio stations.
Santoso said he hoped to expand their membership to 400 in the near future.
Born in 1964 in the Central Java town of Cilacap, Santoso graduated from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) in 1989.
When asked why he joined the press, he answered with a story:
"I was walking to my campus, it was in 1985, when I saw the body of a vagabond not far from the campus entrance gate.
"He must have been lying there dead for days -- there were ants all over his face. I was shocked, I didn't know what to do."
He said that, with the help of a passerby, he took the body of the vagabond to the nearby Red Cross hospital. But the incident left him disturbed.
Santoso decided to write about the experience, and his story was published by the Mutiara tabloid.
He felt an urge to express himself more and more, as he saw many disturbing things.
"I thought that I could do this best by writing," he explained.
He worked for the university press and after graduation, found a job at a small private news agency, the National News Agency.
Later, he worked for the Bisnis Indonesia daily, after which he landed a job at Forum magazine.
Today, he remains the president director of Radio 68H, doing a job he enjoys very much. After all, the Indonesian media has now come of age as a free press. Still, the journey has just begun, as Santoso says, "We shouldn't take press freedom for granted."