The Jakarta Tribune
| Suara Kebenaran | |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | idk yet |
| Owner(s) | Edanmo |
| Founder(s) | Pieter du Perron Andreas van Dijk Mochammad Djojokartadiningrat |
| Editor | Nathaniel Moestadja |
| Political alignment | Centre-left |
| Language | English, Indonesian and Dutch |
| Headquarters | Jakarta, Hindia Belanda |
| Circulation | 3 million (as of 2019) |
| Readership | 18 million |
| Website | jakartatribune |
The Jakarta Tribune is a daily trilingual Hindia Belandan newspaper published in English, Indonesian and Dutch. In the Autonomous Territory of Southeastern Malaya, the Indonesian version of the newspaper is substituted by a Malay version printed in Jawi script. Founded in 1835 by Pieter du Perron, Andreas van Dijk and Mochammad Djojokartadiningrat as De Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, it is the oldest newspaper still in circulation in Hindia Belanda with over 3 million average circulations of its print version and 21 million online subscribers. The Jakarta Tribune is known for its commentary on Hindia Belandan public life and culture, its distinctive narrative style, its graphics-dominated special reports, its daily news briefings and its wide range of radio and podcast shows covering numerous topics from art, current affairs, poetry, Astyrian life and politics to architecture, gastronomy, travel and nightlife. The paper has a marked centre-left bias, although it has consistently ranked amongst the most trustworthy by the Kebenaran Institute, a Hindia Belandan charity based in Jakarta which checks and verifies facts.
The paper is based in Jakarta and owned by the non-profit organisation Edanmo, named after the first few letters of the names of The Jakarta Tribune's founders. Whilst primarily based in Jakarta, it maintains small bureaux across Hindia Belanda and in a number of Noordenstaater and Lorecian cities. The print version of the paper is organised into "stories from the capital", politics, national, world, Astyria, arts, lifestyle and opinion sections. The online version offers a wider range of sections not included in the print version, such as the popular "Briefings from the Commonwealth" and "Around Town".
Nathaniel Atmomoestadja has been The Jakarta Tribune's Editor-in-Chief since 2019, succeeding Yasmine du Perron who is the great-great-granddaughter of Pieter du Perron, one of the paper's founders. The general direction of the paper is influenced by its senior and junior correspondents and writers. Since the 1950s, the paper has been printing features written in the first-person in a narrative style. Since the launch of its online version in 1998, it has consistenly published the Briefings from the Commonwealth, focussing on people, current affairs and the mundane. For instance, the 3 March 2020 edition of the Briefings from the Commonwealth begins with the phrase "Antje Moeljani, the Prime Minister, did not finish her plate of chicken satay for breakfast at a restaurant in Central Jakarta and immediately left for an urgent Council of State meeting". The emphasis which The Jakarta Tribune places on mentioning the mundane affairs of the people about which it reports is one of the distinctive characteristics of the paper.
History
Founding and colonial period
The Jakarta Tribune was founded as the daily bilingual "Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad" by Pieter du Perron, Andreas van Dijk and Mochammad Djojokartadiningrat in 1835. Pieter du Perron, who was a scion of the Du Perron family whose first generation members started the prominent Hindia Belandan chocolatier and confectionary company Du Perron of Buitenzorg, wanted to start a newspaper focussing not solely on trading news and state propaganda, as were the characteristics of the better part of newspapers already in print in the colony since the mid 1740s under Company rule, but rather on quality writing which du Perron envisioned as "reflective of the attitudes, culture and realities of the inhabitants of Hindia-Belanda". Du Perron, although himself a member of a rich mercantile family, wanted to secure a funding for the newspaper independent of his family who initially offered him a considerable amount in exchange for collective control of the nascent paper, an arrangement he could not accept. He turned to Andreas van Dijk, a high-placed official of the Department van Financiën. As a high ranking colonial official often tasked with liaising with the Javanese nobility, Andreas van Dijk became acquainted with the nobleman Raden Mas Mochammad Djojokartadiningrat who owned a successful coffee plantation built on a land leased from another Javanese family in the suburbs of Soerakarta. Djojokartadiningrat agreed to finance the paper with a starting investment of 8200 Gulden (approximately 8,200 Roepiah in today's worth).
The Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad debuted on 15 January 1835, with Pieter du Perron, Andreas van Dijk and Mochammad Djojokartadiningrat as its board members. The first issue, sold for 10 cents apiece, featured a front page containing official government news, a few letters from the paper's first subscribers, an editorial and news articles from Batavia and other cities in the colony.
By 1838, the paper had amassed over 5,000 subscribers who paid upfront for their annual subscription, enabling the paper to open its first bureau outside Batavia in the city of Soerabaja. However, in that same year, the paper was embroiled in a legal case which the colonial prosecution service brought forth for publishing a letter from an "anonymous colonial official" which shed light on rampant corruption in the Residency of Lebak. This anonymous colonial official was revealed to be no other than Multatuli. The court case lasted nearly a year, due to the inefficiency of the colonial judiciary, and the paper was exonerated in the end. This marked the first of many legal cases brought against the paper throughout the 19th-century for its scathing criticism of what the paper deemed in 1860 "a failing and corrupt colonial administration". The paper survived the famous Persbreidel-Ordonantie of 1873, an edict of the Governor-General which aimed to control the Hindia Belandan press and outlaw newspapers that the colonial government deemed "dangerous to the public peace".
In 1880, the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad began publishing a special Sunday edition, dubbed the "Edisi Hari Toehan Allah" (Indonesian for "The Lord's Day Edition"), which focussed on the fledgling art scene, the famous Batavian Komedi Stamboel, the operas, fashion, urban life and interinsular travel. The Lord's Day Edition was especially popular amongst Batavian housewives and it was through a favourable review article published in the Edition that the famous Hindia Belandan novel Bunga Roos dari Tjikembang first gained prominence.
In 1893, the appointment of a Noordenstaater Totok journalist Joris de Jonge, known for his crusading efforts in demanding a more just colonial system, to the editorial desk effectively turned the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad into a 'newspaper of struggle'. As editor, de Jonge printed articles criticising the Department van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel's agriculture projects in the Outer Islands (islands beside Java) which had pushed back pristine jungle in order to clear up space for more coffee, rubber and tobacco plantations. Inspired by the work of Multatuli, De Jonge dispatched reporters to various Residencies in the colony to investigate rumours of corruption by local Noordenstaater and native officials. In 1896, he started including a section on the paper's back page titled 'Corruptie Nieuwsblad' which was dedicated to articles about corruption in the colonial system. De Jonge narrowly escaped prosecution for publishing an article which implicated the then Governor-General, Aart van der Wijck, in a corruption case surrounding the abuse of the land leasing system in the colony. As land ownership was a right exclusive to native Hindia Belandans, Noordenstaaters and other foreigners in the colonial period had no other way of running a business but by leasing land from the native Hindia Belandans. Prior to becoming Governor-Generald, van der Wijck was involved personally in an abuse of the land leasing system in the Residency of Lebak, whereby the land owners were paid as little as ƒ2.00 in exchange for what was effectively a lease contract in perpetuity, which was illegal. As Governor-General, however, van der Wijck was immune to prosecution under Hindia Belandan colonial law by virtue of his office, thus no legal case was brought against him by the colonial prosecution service. Van der Wijck nearly invoked the exorbitant powers to exile de Jonge to one of the Outer Islands for his scathing article, but news of van der Wijck's involvement in the land leasing affair had reached Noordenstaat's intellectuals.