On June 21 1994 Indonesia’s information ministry withdrew the press permits of the weekly magazine Tempo, the weekly political tabloid Detik, and Editor, a new news weekly. Their critical reporting upset President Soeharto, particularly Tempo revealing conflict between cabinet ministers in the government purchasing naval vessels from the former East Germany.
Journalists, rights activists, academics, students marched to the office of Information Minister Harmoko and demanded the ban be lifted.
One demonstrator was press freedom prime mover Atmakusumah. As editor, educator, author, and rights campaigner, his voice in speech and the written word championing a free press was vocal and compelling.
Atmakusumah passed away on Thursday at the Cipto Mangunkusumo Central Public Hospital (RSCM) due to kidney failure. He was 86.
Atmakusumah Astraatmadja normally used his first name only. People call him Pak Atma. ”Pak” is short for bapak (father). It is an honorific title to show respect.
Pak Atma campaigned to protect and solidify press freedom in Indonesia as journalist, teacher and legislative mover.
Indonesia Raya
Born on 20 October 1938 in Labuan, Banten, a two-hour drive west of Jakarta, Atma in 1958 started as a cub reporter in the independent Jakarta daily Indonesia Raya (Greater Indonesia) named after the country’s national anthem. But he only held the job for several months when the government banned it. That event made Atma realise the meaning of press freedom as its curtailment affected him directly.
Indonesia Raya reported on corruption and government malfeasance in the 1950s under founder-editor Mochtar Lubis. Its crusading coverage earned the wrath of President Sukarno who then banned the paper as many as six times.
Atma moved to broadcasting for RRI the state-run radio service, Radio Australia in Melbourne in 1961, and the Indonesia service for Deutsche Welle in Cologne in 1964. He returned to Jakarta in 1965 and joined the state-funded ANTARA news agency.
After the end of Sukarno’s rule in 1966, Mochtar Lubis revived the paper in 1968. As its chief editor, he stuck to Indonesia Raya’s news policy of speaking truth to power, exposing bad government.
In 1968, Atma returned to Indonesia Raya first as chief reporter and later as managing editor. Atma led reporting in uncovering mismanagement in state-operated bodies like the rice procurement agency Bulog and the oil company Pertamina. In politics, the paper reported on anti-government demonstrations that climaxed during the state visit of Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka in January 1974.
One demand of multicampus students was for President Soeharto to disband a clique of inner circle generals, the ASPRI (asisten pribadi / personal assistants) who had more sway than cabinet ministers. Another was to stop the alleged rot in government.
These demands goaded Soeharto. He arrested campus leaders and critics, defanged dissident generals, and shut down 11 newspapers including Indonesia Raya.
The information ministry blacklisted Atma, meaning that he could not find work in any newsroom without government approval.
In 1974, the US embassy in Jakarta employed Atma as a press attache assistant and, later, information specialist. One task was to monitor press developments. This involved analyzing the government’s press policy, the news policy and character of the media outlets, and identifying individual journalists in the cited news organisations. This data was used as an internal embassy press guidebook.
With this knowledge base, Atma wrote articles on the Indonesian press in his free time. Essays on press freedom appeared in the mainstream media and in campus periodicals with the byline Ramakrisna, combining the names of his first two sons. He also edited the mass communication section in the 1991 Ensiklopedia Nasional Indonesia. The section had more than 100 entries.
LPDS
In 1992 the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute, LPDS, a journalism school in Jakarta, invited Atma to join its faculty of instructors, many of whom were veteran journalists. When the government appointed LPDS founding director D.H. Assegaff as ambassador to Hanoi in 1994, Assegaff named Atma to succeed him.
1994 was the year press freedom got crippled with the banning of three critical periodicals. It was in this period that Atma got supercharged to promote press freedom. Beyond the LPDS classroom, he spoke in groups on why the nation needs press freedom as it functions to ensure democracy and good governance. Campus and other young people groups would quietly invite Atma for discussions, unannounced to thwart police and military surveillance.
In May 1998, after 32 years in power, Soeharto ended his presidency under pressure of mass protests nationwide. One provocative act was students occupying the House of Representatives premises.
Calls for press freedom were blared immediately and openly. One move was for the post-Soeharto government to work with parliament to draft a new press law replacing the one that Soeharto enacted. Forward-moving information minister Muhammad Yunus invited Atma to give input in the legislative process. Atma worked with a small group of journalists on what articles should go into a press law.
In 1999, the House passed the new draft that President B.J. Habibie signed into law. It differs from Soeharto’s 1966 and 1982 press law in that the new law legally guarantees press freedom. A media publication no longer requires a press licence. An independent Press Council is established “to protect the freedom of the press from interference by other parties”.
Atma was the unanimous choice to be the first post-Soeharto chair of the Press Council of Indonesia.
Atmakusumah is recipient of the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay Award in Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. AJI, Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (Alliance of Independent Journalists), named him winner of its 2008 Press Freedom Award. In 2023 the Press Council honoured him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Magsaysay
In his Magsaysay Award acceptance speech in Manila on 31 August 2000, Atma stated that despite press bans by Presidents Sukarno and Soeharto, “the spirit of press freedom and freedom of expression never dies”.
Atma spoke on the open and closed meetings he held in 30 cities with campus and rights groups on their concern on freedom of expression and democracy in the latter Soeharto years.
“It is a great encouragement for morale of the present and future younger generations to have to continue to fight for press freedom, free expression and democracy,” his speech concluded.
Principle
Atma was a journalist of uncompromising principle.
Second son Rama Ardana, 52, related that in 2014 a political party approached Atma to restart Indonesia Raya. Atma would be the chief editor of the daily that would serve as the party’s bullhorn.
“Father flatly rejected the offer. Indonesia Raya was not built to support the political interest of whatever grouping,” Rama asserted.
“Newspapers, the mass media, should be for the public interest, defending people’s human rights and not that of one or two politicians, moreover to promote a presidential candidate,” Rama maintained.
Atma has written columns in 20 media outlets. He has authored and edited at least 12 books. His essays appear in more than 30 books. His most recent publication is Membangun Pers Independen (Building an Independent Press, Kompas, 2023). It tells stories on actual press freedom challenges, intimidation of journalists.
Atmakusumah is survived by longtime life partner Sri Rumiati and their three sons: historical documentary maker Kresnahutama, forest and environment researcher/campaigner Rama Ardana, and Tri Laksmana, astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Warief Djajanto Basorie
Warief Djajanto Basorie is a past reporter of Indonesia’s KNI News Service and Jakarta correspondent of the Manila-based DEPTHnews Asia. He later became a journalism instructor at the Dr.Soetomo Press Institute (LPDS) in Jakarta where he convened thematic reportorial workshops. The themes included AIDS, the environment and the climate crisis. He worked from home during the covid pandemic and is now retired. Warief contributes articles to domestic and overseas outlets on the environment, climate, Indonesian politics, and international relations.