Corruption Reporting
Eighteen journalists from press, radio, television and online media organizations based in Jakarta (16), Bandung (1) and Solo (1) participated in a two-day BBG/VOA seminar on reporting corruption. Five training participants represented the VOA Indonesian Service affiliates – TV One, Metro TV, Kompas TV, Kompas.com and Okezone.com. The seminar was organized and sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and held at the American-Indonesian Educational Foundation (AMINEF).
PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The participants created a group Facebook account to stay in touch after the training, to help and advise each other, to get peers’ feedback about their published reports, to network and expand their new FB group “Indonesian Community of Investigative Reporters.”
By the end of the seminar, each journalist came up with a story idea for journalistic investigation that can be pitched to their media organizations. Most journalists are planning to investigate illegal activities and actions of the local authorities that affect local communities, including real estate dealings, implementation of the new health care regulations, and access to free public education.
Two journalists are planning to investigate corruption that involves political parties and private banks in Indonesia. Stories on human rights violations, in particular mistreatment of orphans and stateless children of labor migrants were pitched by two other journalists. One journalist outlined her plan for investigative reporting on corruption in the Indonesian penitentiary system, and another one said that she knows now what needs to be done to bring to justice corrupt border and customs officers who are involved in human trafficking of foreign migrants in Indonesia.