Santoso bridges isolation over the radio

Santoso bridges isolation over the radio

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, and 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 back 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.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, he remains the president director of Radio 68H, doing a
job he enjoys very much.

He has much to be pleased about -- after all, the Indonesian
media has now come of age as a free press. Still, the journey has
just begun, and as Santoso says, "We shouldn't take press freedom
for granted."