Supporting Local Journalists Working to Encourage Better Public Policies and Combating Corruption in Eastern Indonesia
By Gregorius Afioma
Amid the hegemony of corporate-driven media, which is mostly concentrated in Java Island, that is shaping public discourse and dominating the media landscape in Indonesia, there has been a limited representation of local issues. It is difficult for local issues to gain public attention and significant feedback. However, advancements in digital technology have provided new avenues for alternative and local media to flourish, allowing for a more diverse representation of important local topics.
This shifting dynamic led to the creation of Floresa.co, a local media outlet based in Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Eastern Indonesia. Established in 2014 and founded by a group of young journalists and students from Flores, including myself, this initiative aims to challenge and counter mainstream media domination in shaping regional and local social issues. It also aims to give local issues the attention they deserve and create a more diverse and inclusive media landscape.
Flores Island has long been known for its underdevelopment and rampant corruption, poverty, human trafficking, mining, and land-grabbing. The province is ranked as the third poorest in the country with a poverty rate of 20.05 percent, according to the state’s Central Statistics Agency data for 2022 (https://ntt.bps.go.id/indicator/23/584/1/persentase-penduduk-miskin-menurut-kabupaten-kota.html) . Some districts with the worst poverty rates in the province are on Flores Island. Likewise, the Corruption Eradication Commission placed the province third from the bottom in the 2020 Monitoring Center Prevention score and the 2021 Integrity Assessment Survey (https://en.antaranews.com/news/255781/several-indications-of-corruption-in-east-nusa-tenggara-kpk).
We believe that the lack of civic social movements is linked to prevalent socio-political and economic issues. Rooted in this vision, we seek to address these issues through journalistic-driven activism. Over the last decade, Floresa.co has partly shown positive results in strengthening the local development process and fighting against corruption issues. For instance, a series of investigative reports in 2018 exposed a corruption case involving 1 trillion rupiah (USD$63.9 million) and brought the actors involved to justice. Moreover, many media reports have been replicated and amplified by the national media, leading to significantly larger impacts.
Despite the significant impacts made thus far, there is still a need to further strengthen the roles of local media. The Floresa model has proven successful and should be emulated by other local media outlets. Therefore, following our participation in the Alumni TIES Democracy Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 14–18, 2022, which focused on the theme of “Youth & Opportunity: Defending Democracy and Advancing Human Rights,” my colleague, Nisrina Nadhifah Rahman, and I immediately identified an opportunity to strengthen the capacity of journalists in Flores.
In collaboration with Floresa.co, we organized several activities, including workshops for journalists in Flores and fellowship funds for journalists to do investigative reports. We strongly believe that high-quality reporting in local media has a significant potential for amplification by the national media.
In the workshop, we involved senior journalists from prominent national media organizations, such as Tempo, Project Multatuli, and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI). We also involved the government members from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the research and advocacy organization, Indonesia Corruption Watch. We decided to hold a virtual workshop to accommodate journalists in various locations. The workshop took place in three sessions, with the final session facilitated by Floresa.co mentors and editors, where they provided journalists with practical ways of working on investigative reports.
First day of the workshop about “Observing Corruption Patterns and What Is the Role of the Media in Preventing and Handling It?”
Day 2 of the workshop about “Strategy Regarding Coverage of Corruption Issues”
At the conclusion of the workshop, participants were invited to submit proposals on potential investigative journalistic pieces. Of the 28 workshop participants, 10 were selected. The participants proposed various topics. Topics included the misuse of the budget in road construction projects, the development of tourist project sites that cleared mangroves and were then abandoned for years, and allegations of corruption in the construction of a hospital.
The work on each of these reports was not as smooth as we had previously imagined. With a short workshop, journalists found it difficult to pursue their investigations. Although capable of such skills, the persistence, hard work, and analytical thinking skills required in investigative journalism pushed the journalists beyond what is typically expected from the daily news reporting. The editors and mentors anticipated this issue and addressed it with regular mentoring sessions via Zoom and daily chats via WhatsApp and Signal. Mentors and editors also accompanied the participants at every stage, starting from formulating topics, determining sources, asking questions for sources, and researching data that needs to be included in the reports.
Mentoring session via Google Meet between mentors and grant recipients Anjany Podangsa and Anno Susabun
One of the mentors said, “Participants are generally used to making reports of 200–500 words, while in this project they are working on in-depth reports which can be up to 2000–3000 words in one article, so the mentoring must be intensive.” Each draft that has been worked on is then revised dozens of times before being published. Because of this process, of the 10 participants, only seven have published reports, while the others are in the finalization process.
We adhere to the principle that the focus of the project is on the training of the process of investigative journalism. “I want this to be an important lesson that they can duplicate when working on similar reports in the future,” said one editor. This project contributed to strengthening the capacity of journalists. They admitted that this was the first time they had received this kind of intense assistance in their careers. One participant even decided to do two reports instead of just one so that he could be mentored twice.
It is also crucial that the investigative reports are a series — one that includes follow-up reports on the status of the issue. A report regarding budget misappropriation in road projects by the government in East Manggarai Regency, for example, resulted in investigations by the relevant authorities, so we published several follow-up reports regarding the case.
One of the grant recipients, Primus Etgak Anggal, was covering a mangrove forest threatened by a road project. The government is suspected of committing irregularities in carrying out the project.
After all the articles are published, we will continue this project by gathering participants, mentors, and editors in a workshop in March 2024, where they will share experiences, evaluate each other, and formulate joint steps to form a coalition of investigative journalists in Flores. It is hoped that this project will be a starting point for a collaboration of journalists to contribute to a more just and open society.
Gregorius Afioma is a 2020 alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) from Indonesia. He participated in the November 2022 Alumni TIES seminar on “Youth and Opportunity: Defending Democracy and Advancing Human Rights” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Alumni TIES is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by World Learning, in partnership with the Office of Alumni Affairs of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
