Antara (news agency)

Antara was established on 13 December 1937 in Batavia (later Jakarta), the colonial capital of the Dutch East Indies.[4] Prior to its establishment, Dominique Willem Berretty had founded Aneta, the Indies' first news agency. A number of Dutch and indigenous firms were also in existence but did not achieve similar stature. As a Dutch agency, however, Aneta rarely included local news in its coverage. This led to dissatisfaction among independence activists Soemanang Soerjowinoto and Albert Manoempak Sipahoetar, who eventually decided to form a separate news agency.[5][6]

Soemanang had been working at the Tjaja Timoer newspaper, while Sipahoetar was an employee for a Dutch advertisement agency. The latter was also an acquaintance of Adam Malik, who had left Medan after Dutch authorities attempted to imprison him for political activism. The three met at Soemanang's residence with author Armijn Pane to discuss the establishment of the news agency. Soemanang named the agency Antara based on Perantaraan,[lower-alpha 2] a weekly magazine he had previously established in Bogor. He became its editor-in-chief, while Sipahoetar became a senior editor. Antara's first news bulletin reporting its own establishment, was reprinted in the newspapers Perasaan Kita on 14 December 1937 and Kebangoenan the following day. Sanusi Pane, Armijn Pane's older brother and Kebangoenan's editor-in-chief, and Perasaan Kita editor-in-chief Prawoto Soemodilogo were appointed to the agency's board of directors.[6]

An Antara reporter uses wireless telegraphy to broadcast a dispatch, c. 1948.

The agency's leadership was later reorganized. Soemanang became Antara's managing editor, and while Malik became his deputy.[6] Malik, twenty years old at the time, was credited with keeping the agency alive in its early years by building a base of supporters in the emerging indigenous middle class.[7] After Soemanang left Antara in 1938 to become the director of the Pergoeroean Rakjat network of schools, Sipahoetar was promoted to editor-in-chief, and Pandoe Kartawigoena became the agency's deputy editor-in-chief. Sipahoetar was later elevated to managing editor, but left the agency in 1939 because of an illness. Alwi Soetan Osman, an employee of the Indies' Ministry of Justice, briefly succeeded him as managing editor before being replaced by Pandoe Kartawigoena.[6]

When Japanese forces took control of the Indies in 1942, the empire's Dōmei Tsushin news agency established a branch office in Jakarta. Antara was renamed Yashima on 29 May, and it was eventually absorbed by the Dōmei news network three months later. Press activity flourished as Dōmei opened offices in major cities throughout Java.[6][8] When Indonesia's independence was proclaimed on 17 August 1945, Adam Malik obtained a copy of the text and dictated it by telephone to his colleagues at the agency. The resulting news bulletin slipped past Japanese censors and was broadcast throughout Dōmei's newswire network. Dōmei officials attempted to retract the bulletin, but a courier was able to deliver a copy of the proclamation using the agency's name to the Hōsō Kanrikyoku radio station in midst of the confusion. Antara assumed control of Dōmei's local network when the Japanese surrendered to Allied forces weeks later and reopened under private management on 3 September.[9]

Antara's leading journalists soon saw a need for the agency to establish additional branches outside Jakarta. Sjahroedin, a former editor at Dōmei, opened one of these offices in British Singapore in February 1946. The branch received no funding from the newly formed Indonesian government and was housed in a three-story building in Raffles Place. Its goal was to "break the Dutch or Allied monopoly on news about Indonesia", especially when local British authorities did not recognize Indonesia as an independent government.[10]

After the Dutch relinquished all of their possessions in the Indies in 1962, the Indonesian government began mobilizing the mass media in its efforts to build a unified nation. President Sukarno released an executive decree which reorganized Antara as the National News Agency Institute (Lembaga Kantor Berita Nasional, or LKBN) under increased government control.[11] Within three weeks of its reorganization on 24 September, Antara merged with three other existing news agencies: the Indonesian Press Bureau (PIA), the Asian Press Board (APB), and the Indonesian National Press and Publicity Service (INPS).[4][12]

Antara office in Jakarta, 1971

Antara received financial assistance from the government and was placed directly under the president's control, giving him the authority to appoint the agency's managing director and editor-in-chief.[4] Antara's position in the structure of government resulted in confusion over its ownership and control, as well as shifting editorial views in the coming decades. As Sukarno pursued increasingly leftist policies, the conservative media accused Antara for its "explicitly partisan" reporting. Following his removal from office, the subsequent government also used the agency to further its policies, prompting criticism from the liberal media.[13]

An abortive coup in 1965, blamed on the Communist Party of Indonesia and its allies, left Antara under military command. Nearly one-third of its editorial staff were dismissed, and many journalists sympathetic to the Communist Party were killed in the subsequent anti-communist purge.[14] After Suharto assumed the presidency in the following year, the agency produced many of its news reports based on official government sources. Independent news outlets published stories on politically sensitive topics only if they had been reported by Antara in order to avoid sanctions should the stories be found offensive by government leaders.[13] Although the government released a decree affirming freedom of the press, news publishers had to obtain a Permit To Publish (Surat Izin Terbit) from the Ministry of Information and a Permit To Print (Surat Izin Cetak) from the military security authority Kopkamtib. This ensured the suppression of publications with militant views.[15]

Suharto resigned his presidency in 1998, and licensing requirements for media organizations were lifted the following September as the number of authorized publications surged from 289 to over 2,000 in the span of 16 months.[16] Antara attempted to reinvent its image into that of an independent news agency amid the wave of political reforms, but there were allegations of continued bias toward the policies of Suharto's successor B. J. Habibie.[17] President Abdurrahman Wahid later sacked the agency's managing director, Parni Hadi, and accused him of "dominating the news agency and trying to turn Antara into his private company".[18] Hadi's replacement, appointed to the post without any journalism experience, was specifically tasked to make the agency more independent.[19]

In 2007, Antara was removed from the control of the presidency and reorganized as a statutory corporation.[20] It had experienced financial losses in recent years and sought a Rp 450 billion (US$ 50 million) bailout from the government in the following year in order to modernize the agency's business capabilities with the goal of becoming an independent business entity.[21]