<nettime> East Timor Media

[marn*i <marni@thepaper.org.au>]

Hey there,

I've just spent the last couple of months researching independent media in East 
Timor and thought this article might be of interest to nettimers.

Ongoing research thru-out Asia-Pac region will be at www.smallvoices.org

cheers,
marni.



>From Indonesian-managed propaganda to the burgeoning community and independent 
sector of today, the media landscape in East Timor has changed significantly 
since the withdrawal of Indonesian control in 1999.
by MARNI CORDELL

For almost 500 years, the East Timorese people had little experience of freedom 
of the press or access to uncensored information. The country was (often 
neglectfully) ruled by Portugal from the 1500s until 1975 and it was only 
toward the end of this period, after the socialist revolution in Lisbon, that 
the media began to critically address the issue of East Timorese independence. 
However, not long after the Portuguese abandoned the country in 1975, the 
Indonesian military invaded.

During the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, the population was fed a 
constant and restricted diet of government controlled news and information. In 
the face of a media operating primarily as propaganda machine, designed and 
maintained to mislead the international community about what was really going 
on in the country, an efficient network of clandestine media emerged.
The violence and destruction that was carried out by the Indonesian Military 
and Militia after the historical East Timorese vote for independence on August 
30, 1999 left much of the country decimated. The media sector was no exception. 
The country was left with no functioning broadcasting or printing facilities 
and the offices of the only daily newspaper, Suara Timor Timur, were burnt to 
the ground. The Indonesian government installations that had delivered 
satellite television and radio programming to almost every region of the 
country were destroyed, and the import of media from Indonesia was also 
disrupted.

In the aftermath of the destruction and after the withdrawal of Indonesian 
troops, East Timorese journalists, many recently returned from asylum in Kupang 
and Jakarta, were in high spirits and uniformly committed to building an 
independent East Timorese media. Journalists from all different backgrounds - 
student activists and people that had been involved with the creation of 
underground media, along with professional mainstream journalists - began to 
organise together to make this happen. 

In December 1999 discussions began as to how to ensure the future freedom of 
expression and the press in East Timor. Taking into account lessons learnt from 
past restrictive governments, journalists were very aware that their newly 
won 'freedom' would not necessarily be all-encompassing, or forever, and 
decided that a journalists association was needed in order to guarantee the 
future integrity of the media. On December 22nd, after a week of post-conflict 
journalism workshops, the 'Tourismo' declaration was declared - promoting 
independent, anti-intervened, expression in the development of a democratic and 
independent media - and the Timor Loro Sa'e Journalists Association (TLJA) was 
formed.

During '99, there was an influx of new print media sources in East Timor - both 
daily newspapers and weekly magazines - five of which still exist. Others have 
not survived, mainly due to lack of funding and wages for staff.
The former staff of Suara Timor Timur re-organised themselves to produce Suara 
Timor Lorosa'e, and the weekly tabloid Lalenok was the first and only regular 
print media source to be completely in the Timorese dialect, Tetum. 
Traditionally not a written language, Tetum is recognised as being 
technically 'incomplete', despite being the preferred language of most of the 
population. Virgilio da Silva Guterres, a founding member of TLJA who was also 
involved in Lalenok's production, comments on the significance of developing an 
all-Tetum publication: "Lalenok was very important because it was all in Tetum 
and one of its main aims was in order for us to train ourselves to write in 
Tetum, because in the past we'd never really done that. And also we hoped the 
publication would help to standardise the language."

Independent radio also prospered during 1999. During the Indonesian occupation 
of East Timor a group known as Radio Mubere used a mobile transmitter to 
illegally broadcast information from the guerrilla independence fighters 
working in the mountains (Falintil) to the broader population. Radio Mubere was 
just one node in the complex underground information network that enabled the 
East Timorese population to withstand their 24-year struggle. When independence 
was finally won in 1999, some of those involved with Mubere initiated the first 
East Timorese community radio station in Dili: Radio Falintil. The name 
Falintil was chosen so that the clandestine history of the station would be 
recognised. For the population of Dili, who had experienced years of limited 
access, Indonesian-controlled media, the philosophy of community radio - to 
give voice to the voiceless - was a very welcome, if abstract, notion.

There are now six community radio stations in East Timor; and bound to be more 
in the near future. In a country with a high degree of illiteracy, the medium 
is a popular one. Currently however, there are still many rural districts in 
the country that do not have access to a local media source. In response to 
this, two of the Dili-based stations: Radio Lorico Lian, and Radio Rakambiah, 
undertake regular 'roaming broadcasts', in which a group of volunteers take a 
mobile transmitter to remote villages and allow the population open access 
broadcasting, to talk about the issues affecting and concerning them. They also 
teach the local people how to use the radio equipment.

A group of programmers also staged a broadcast protest recently in front of the 
United Nations Transitional Administration office to highlight the issues 
affecting the remote communities they had visited. Joey Borges, Community Radio 
Program Officer for Apheda in East Timor was part of the demonstration. He 
comments: "the government don't like us, they think we are 'radical media' but 
it's the community that is radical, (we are just giving them a voice.)" Borges, 
formerly a technician and programmer with both Radio Mubere and Radio Falintil, 
is currently working, together with the staff and reporters from East Timor's 
six community stations, to set up a national community radio association to 
strengthen the philosophy and practice of community radio stations throughout 
East Timor.

Like many of the media sources initiated in ‘99, Radio Falintil thrived on 
volunteer energy for a year and a half, but has recently experienced a wane in 
commitment, with some technicians and reporters leaving on the basis that the 
station will never be able to provide them with a wage. Sadly, Lalenok also 
suffered post ‘99 from lack of volunteers, and was forced to fold a year ago.

According to Guterres, two and a half years down the track, many people 
initially involved in media production in East Timor have now come to the 
realisation that they could not continue to work as volunteers forever. He 
comments: "We realised that in a different situation (freedom) you could not 
treat people in the same way. In the struggle, everyone was united and willing 
to do anything for nothing. They could forget their personal differences to 
unite. Now that there is freedom people are willing to contribute but also say: 
you must understand, I need something to eat. Even volunteers everywhere, they 
need food. That was one of the mistakes that I confess to. We were wrong to 
think we could work like that long term."

By all accounts, the energy and human resources behind media production in East 
Timor has certainly receded since 1999, with many people forced to find work in 
other fields to support themselves. Although some of the print publications in 
Dili do have paid staff, they receive a minimal amount. Other media sources 
still struggle to survive on volunteer labour. Without welfare assistance and 
when living costs are high compared to incomes, volunteer work is not a luxury 
that many East Timorese can afford to undertake on a long-term basis.

The journalist association has also hit hurdles in the last two years. Because 
most of those involved with initiating TLJA were also active journalists and 
therefore heavily focussed on creating, developing and professionally 
maintaining media in the first year of independence, Guterres believes they had 
no time to sit down and talk about the long, or even short-term, plan of the 
association. In January 2001, TLJA had their first congress to agree on some 
long-term objectives. It was at that time that differences began to emerge. 
Journalists from different backgrounds, all with different levels and concepts 
of professionalism, began to clash. This divide in interests has since resulted 
in the emergence of a second journalist association: the East Timor Journalists 
Union; which two former, founding, members of TLJA have been involved in 
initiating. Officially, no explanation was given for their break-off.

Guterres comments on their departure: "I think its normal, it's a good sign for 
us that we are free to organise so no-one is forced to stay," but is clearly 
regretful that the human resources have been diluted even further. With obvious 
fatigue in his voice he states: "I think it's becoming harder to gather 
journalists together."

On plans for the future: Guterres hopes to re-instigate Lalenok, but this time 
not without the funds to implement an infrastructure and ensure some staff 
wages. He is noticeably regretful when he talks about the publication's demise, 
but his eyes shine as he tells me: "I think we need some tragedies to learn, 
without mistakes we could not survive. When something happens like that we can 
learn and in the future we might…still make mistakes, but at least they'll be 
different ones!"

The media landscape in East Timor is very much in development stages. Although 
TLJA are in the process of developing a training course in conjunction with the 
University, the country is still lacking effective means to train and support 
its journalists. Guidance, support and assistance is still needed on many 
levels in order for it to foster into the critical, independent and democratic 
sector that it has the very real potential to become. One can only hope, as is 
so often the case in development situations that the media sector in East Timor 
does not succumb to the many spurious funding and support sources that it is 
vulnerable to. Sadly, with the World Bank’s recent plans to initiate and fund a 
number of new community radio stations in the country, this does remain a 
possibility. 


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