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Viewing cable 07SURABAYA63, JAWA POS: FIRST HAND-COVERAGE OF BURMA CRISIS, INTERNATIONAL

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07SURABAYA63 2007-10-25 09:37 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Surabaya
VZCZCXRO8863
RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJS #0063/01 2980937
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 250937Z OCT 07
FM AMCONSUL SURABAYA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0088
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0080
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 0003
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 0002
RUEHPO/AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO 0001
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0027
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0029
RUEHJS/AMCONSUL SURABAYA 0090
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SURABAYA 000063 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS (COPE), EAP/RSP, DRL, IO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KPAO PGOV PHUM ID BM NS IS
SUBJECT: JAWA POS: FIRST HAND-COVERAGE OF BURMA CRISIS, INTERNATIONAL 
EVENTS 
 
REF: SURABAYA 49 
 
SURABAYA 00000063  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
1. (SBU)  Summary: During a visit by the Surabaya Principal 
Officer, Public Affairs Officer, and Public Affairs Assistant to 
the Surabaya headquarters of the Jawa Pos Group October 19, Jawa 
Pos editors and journalists described their efforts to provide 
accessible and relevant news coverage to readers throughout 
Eastern Indonesia.  Jawa Pos deployed a team of journalists to 
Burma and Thailand to provide on-the-spot coverage of the 
developing crisis. Jawa Pos ran daily stories, analysis, 
commentary and pictures, including critical editorials of the 
Indonesian government's inaction.  Jawa Pos officials explained 
that it was important for Indonesian readers to see the strength 
of peaceful demonstrations against unjust governments.  Jawa Pos 
has reported recently from Suriname, and currently has a 
journalist reporting from Israel.  End Summary. 
 
2. (U) The Jawa Pos Group, or Jawa Pos News Network (JPNN), 
publishes over 100 local newspapers from Aceh in Sumatra to 
Jayapura in Papua.  The combined readership makes Jawa Pos the 
largest provider of news in Indonesia.  Dahlan Iskan, the former 
Surabaya bureau chief of TEMPO magazine, attained ownership of 
Jawa Pos in 1982.  Each regional paper makes its own editorial 
decisions about which articles to publish, but liberally draws 
on reporting from other Jawa Pos papers.  JPNN has expanded into 
TV, owning JTV in Surabaya, Batam TV in Batam, and Riau TV in 
Pekanbaru. On October 19, Surabaya Principal Officer, PAO, and 
PA Assistant visited the Surabaya offices of Jawa Pos, the 
flagship newspaper of the organization with an average 
circulation of 350,000 per day, to discuss the operating 
philosophy behind the organization. 
 
PUBLISHING THE PEOPLES' PAPERS 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
3. (SBU) The Jawa Pos Group prides itself on publishing 
newspapers that are "peoples' papers" -- newspapers which 
provide the news in a format that is accessible and interesting. 
 Chief Editor Rohman Budijanto described Jawa Pos as a "soap 
opera" when compared to the "theater" offered by national rival 
Kompas newspaper group.  In recent years, Jawa Pos has struggled 
to address criticisms that the Group was willing to sacrifice 
accuracy for telling a good story.  Today, under the motto 
"selalu ada yang baru" (there is always something new), Jawa Pos 
deploys its reporters to far-flung locations, including Burma, 
Thailand, Israel, and Suriname, to provide first-hand accounts 
of issues it deems relevant to its readers.  Jawa Pos is unique 
among Indonesian media organizations in its willingness to spend 
money to send journalists to cover international issues and 
events 
 
4. (SBU) Budijanto explained why Jawa Pos had recently sent 
reporters to Suriname, a country little known in Indonesia. 
According to Budijanto, more than 20% of Suriname's population 
is ethnically Javanese.  This population immigrated during 
Indonesia's and Suriname's Dutch colonial period, and speak a 
purer form of Javanese than that of their Indonesian 
counterparts.  Jawa Pos's reporting has translated into an 
upcoming visit to East Java by delegates from Suriname, 
including the ethnic Javanese Speaker of Parliament. 
 
COVERING THE CRISIS IN BURMA 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
5. (SBU) Jawa Pos's coverage of the protests and crackdown in 
Burma is perhaps the most illustrative example of the newspaper 
group's efforts to tell the entire story.  Only one of two 
Indonesian newspapers to send journalists to Burma and the 
Thai-Burmese border to provide first-hand coverage of the 
unfolding crisis, Jawa Pos ran daily articles, analysis, 
commentary, and pictures on its front page and in its 
international section tracking developments and international 
reaction.  Kardono Setyorakhmadi, one of the reporters who had 
just returned from Burma and Thailand after three weeks on the 
ground, joined our October 19 meeting. 
 
6. (SBU) While the reporters were in Burma itself, Jawa Pos 
protected their individual identities, ascribing reports to the 
Jawa Pos team of reporters. In one such report, the Jawa Pos 
 
SURABAYA 00000063  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
reported that a Burmese official in Shan Province had told the 
Jawa Pos team that at least five generals and 400 soldiers had 
been detained by the junta after they disobeyed orders to shoot 
Buddhist monks near Mandalay.  Kardono explained to us that 
Burmese authorities restricted his movement to within the 
borders of the Shan state, but that he was able to speak with a 
wide range of local officials, activists, and refugees.  After 
his departure from Burmese territory, Kardono's reporting 
appeared under his byline.  His reporting from within Burma and 
along the Thai-Burmese border provided powerful pictures and 
personal accounts of midnight raids, detentions of monks and 
civilians, and the junta's brutality. Another journalist, Tomy 
Gutomo, filed reports based on interviews with individuals in 
Rangoon. 
 
7. (SBU) In addition to reporting on criticism of President 
Yudhoyono and the Indonesian government by Jakarta politicians 
for failing to take a firm stand against the military junta, 
Jawa Pos carried extensive coverage of international reaction to 
the demonstrations and subsequent crackdown.  On October 8, Jawa 
Pos published an editorial accusing Indonesia of failing to play 
a leadership role in ASEAN or the UN Security Council on Burma. 
 
POWER OF THE PEOPLE 
---------------------------------- 
 
 
8. (SBU) Asked why Jawa Pos had decided to dedicate significant 
resources to covering events in Burma, Budijanto explained that 
Burma was not only a neighbor and member of ASEAN, but also that 
Indonesia's position in ASEAN and the UN made the government's 
response, or lack thereof, relevant to Jawa Pos readers.  He 
compared events in Burma to similar demonstrations in the 
Philippines which had resulted in the overthrow of President 
Marcos.  During the Philippine crisis, Jawa Pos sent a reporter 
to cover events and the paper's circulation doubled.  Budijanto 
elaborated that while the situations in the Philippines and 
Burma were not parallel, and the psychological differences 
between Buddhist Burma and Muslim Indonesia were relevant, it 
was important for Indonesians to see the impact and strength of 
people willing to demonstrate to overthrow a dictator. 
 
ISRAEL AND WASHINGTON 
--------------------------------------- 
 
9. (SBU) Coverage of the Burma crisis did not increase 
circulation, but neither did circulation fall during the 
extended Lebaran holiday season when most Indonesians returned 
to their villages to celebrate the end of Ramadan with family. 
Jawa Pos received positive feedback from its on-the-ground 
reporting and plans to expand such coverage.  A Jawa Pos 
journalist traveled to Israel recently on an Israeli-sponsored 
tour and has been filing stories from the road.  The Jawa Pos 
published an interview with Israeli FM Livni and other reporting 
from Israel just before the Indonesia visit of Palestinian 
President Abbas, reflecting some effort to present a balanced 
picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Budijanto said 
that the journalist was given permission by his editors to stay 
in the region longer to report on Middle East issues from other 
countries. 
 
10. (SBU) Jawa Pos has not had a journalist stationed in the 
U.S. since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, but has sent a 
journalist to cover an Islamic conference hosted by the Islamic 
Society of North America in Chicago and sent journalists to the 
U.S. on programs funded by the Foreign Press Center.  Jawa Pos 
is considering assigning a journalist permanently to Washington 
to cover the U.S. presidential election. 
MCCLELLAND