Chapter iv Radio journalism, transition, Indonesianness This chapter will explain how print and broadcast journalism during the New Order were affected by Bakhtinian heteroglossia, and how the institutional structures, journalistic concepts and programme genres of radio during Reformasi have reflected characteristics of Bakhtinian carnival. Firstly, it will analyse how the New Order regime used the concept of development jour- nalism and different forms of legislation as tools to establish monologism as the dominant mode of discourse in the Indonesian public sphere. Secondly, it will discuss several strategies employed by journalists, audiences and other groups in civil society in heteroglossic reaction against the officially approved discursive monologism. Thirdly, it will identify alternative journalistic con- cepts and organization forms that have been developed during Reformasi, some of which have a dialogical character. I will specifically focus on four institutions that have had considerable impact on the reform of the Indonesian radio landscape due to the nationwide scope of their broadcasts, training programmes, and other activities includ- ing the organization of competitions for radio stations. These institutions are Kantor Berita Radio 68H, Internews Indonesia, the Indonesia Media Law and Policy Centre and the Indonesian branch of the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, which all have connections with or are aided by foreign organizations. In line with my discussion of the introduction and development of the idea of the public sphere in Indonesia, the case-studies will confirm that Reformasi cannot be understood as merely a local, uniquely Indonesian phenomenon, but has to be situated in the field of dynamic interactions between regional, national and international social, political and cultural forces. The New Order and development journalism During the New Order, Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) and Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) had monopolies on the production of news broadcasts. Boek JURRIENS.indb 49 10/2/2009 2:33:09 PM 50 From monologue to dialogue Commercial radio and television stations were obliged to relay the RRI and TVRI news bulletins and only allowed to produce so-called ‘soft’ news of their own, or news that was at least 24 hours after an event and never before any official reactions were known (Kitley 2000:255; Sen and Hill 2000:128). Soft news was also different from ‘hard’ news in style and content, as it was not supposed to contain harsh criticism of government affairs (compare Hjarvard 1998:216). RRI and TVRI’s style of broadcast journalism was a specific interpreta- tion of development journalism, designed to serve New Order’s five-year Pembangunan (‘Development’) programmes for advancing the country’s economy.1 ‘Development journalism’ is an international concept, which alleg- edly has its roots in a seminar on the relationship between broadcast- ing, education and development organized by UNESCO in Bangkok, May 1967 (Tobing 1991:27). It was fully developed by the members of the Press Foundation of Asia (PFA) – a Manila-based non-profit organization for the training of journalists from Asian countries – who attempted to employ ‘Western media ideology – including the separation of press and state – to advance their profession and, in turn, the development of their countries’ (Tobing 1991:27-8). Journalism according to the original PFA concept did not rely merely on government sources reporting the positive effects of their own policies and activities, but had an independent and investigative character (Tobing 1991:47). During the 1970s and 1980s, development journalism further evolved in the context of UNESCO debates on the imbalances in the global distribu- tion of information resources. In these debates, Third World representatives pleaded for replacing or modifying the Western capitalist notion of ‘free flow of information’ with the new notion of ‘balanced flow of information’ in order to create and support a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO).2 They argued that one of the ways in which NWICO could be achieved was through strict government control of the media (McPhail 1987:77, 105). Western UNESCO members, particularly the United States, were abhorred by the idea of national media borders and referred to article 19 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of opinion and expression as well as the right to use any type of medium to search, receive and distribute information.3 1 Tobing 1991:4; McDaniel 1994:224, 298-9; Kitley 2000:178-9. 2 McPhail 1987:73-6; Ansah 1986:65. At the 20th UNESCO General Assembly in Paris, 1978, their plea resulted in a compromise on a ‘free and balanced flow of information’, see McPhail 1987:105. 3 McPhail 1987:166; Ansah 1986:78; Muted voices 1996. Apart from budgetary disagreement, their dissent with the call for more state interference in communication affairs was one of the Boek JURRIENS.indb 50 10/2/2009 2:33:09 PM.