
Issue No 94		04 May 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Media

Birth Of A Nation

By Hamish McDonlad

East Timor's young journalists are struggling with language barriers and technical difficulties most Australian media professionals wouldn't be able to comprehend. But they're keen and eager to learn.

About the middle of last year in Dili, two United Nations policemen trying to bring some sort of order to the city's traffic made the mistake of pulling over Rosa Garcia for some infringement as she was driving out to a reporting assignment. Garcia, a slight figure with a toothy smile and black-rimmed specs who admits to a body weight of 45 kilos, argued her case so strenuously that the police, a New Zealander and an American, felt obliged to restrain her with handcuffs before charging her.

The Rosa Garcia case then occupied columns of space in the two daily newspapers of East Timor, hours of time at the weekly press conference held by the UN transitional administration, and when it eventually came before a magistrate was thrown out as too trivial. While the case might look like an example of media self-importance almost anywhere else, disrespect by journalists towards authorities in East Timor has got to be taken as a positive sign as this tiny tropical half-island gropes towards its own democracy, after 400 years of Portuguese rule and 24 years of occupation by Suharto-era Indonesia.

When some 130 practicing and would-be journalists got together in January for the inaugural congress of the Timor Lorosae Journalists Association it was clear that the local profession has a lot of work ahead of it. Held in the former teachers' college that was the famous UN headquarter and refugee asylum during the 1999 sacking of Dili, the congress was beset by the tropical downpours and frequent power cuts that make deadlines and printing schedules necessarily flexible in the wet season. Not that available printing presses are that reliable: on some days the papers come out as A3 photocopies, a feasible short-term substitute given that top circulation is only about 1200 copies a day for Suara Timor Lorosae and its rival Timor Post.

Hope of a more stable printing base comes from the redoubtable Bob Howarth of Queensland Newspapers, who has located a surplus Heidelberg press in Brisbane, and is cajoling funds from Australian media groups to have it refurbished, shipped up, and installed as a common facility in Dili.

Then there is language. There cannot be too many eight-page newspapers that employ four languages in each issue: the Bahasa Indonesia that most educated young people understand; the Tetum that is the most widely-spoken local language; the Portuguese chosen by the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) as the official language; and the English used by resident foreigners and most liftable from websites.

When Mario Carrascalao, a deputy to CNRT leader Xanana Gusmao, came along to give the inaugural address, his hour-long speech -- judging from the hum of conversation -- went past the ears of his young audience. Carrascalao was then prevailed on to give it again, in Indonesian, and this time it was marked by laughs and clapping in the right places.

Three periodicals -- Talitakum, Lalenok and Lian Maubere -- are trying to gain a readership for Tetum journalism, with the help of several foreign agencies, but their editors admit it is a pioneering business that involves building up a language that so far has not much of an abstract dimension. Many of the young journalists, like the newly recruited judges and other officials of the emerging state, are engaged in intensive Portuguese language study -- which Lisbon is funding in a burst of post-colonial generosity and guilt -- but clearly this generation will live and think in Indonesian. This is not necessarily a cultural ``sleeper'' left behind by the former occupiers, as the young Timorese are connected to their ``reformasi'' counterparts across the border rather than authoritarian elites, but it does point to a lasting source of tension in local political circles.

Nor can the fourth estate always look to enlightened attitudes from former freedom fighters or the guardians of universal human rights. As the congress was under way, delegates were aghast to learn that one UN foreign expert was demanding that all local newspapers provide a full set of clippings relating to her field of work --- and threatening to have any operating permits withdrawn if they did not. But aside from that, East Timor's young journalists are characterised by energy and curiosity, with several foreign journalists from Australia, the South Pacific, Indonesia, south-east Asia and Portugal invited to speak and field questions.

The sessions covered subjects such as globalisation, media ownership, rights of journalists, investigative reporting, the role of women, ethics, and broadcasting law. Touchingly, the delegates spent many hours listening to accounts of how the world's journalists covered their own tragic history. In my case, it was a thorough quizzing about the Balibo case, arising from the recent book written with Desmond Ball, and one young Timorese quickly cut to the chase: ``Who is guilty of killing the Balibo five?''

On the final day, the congress packed itself into a motorcade of borrowed vehicles and motorbikes, and headed up to the top of town to rename one of Dili's main streets as ``Press Freedom Avenue''. We all stopped 10 times in the rain to dedicate a new street sign to each of the 10 journalists who were killed covering East Timor's struggles in 1975 and 1999. At the end, where the avenue reaches the main Dili market, it was my turn to say a few words about Roger East, the Australian freelancer who refused the offer of evacuation ahead of the December 7, 1975 , attack on Dili by Indonesian forces and was captured and executed the next day.

Although I was unable to stay on myself, most of the congress participants went on the next day to Balibo itself to look at the site where the five newsman from Australia's Seven and Nine networks were killed in October 1975, and to join local people in viewing films made about that incident.

East Timor will continue to be in the news for Australia this year, as elections are due on August 30 -- the second anniversary of the vote for independence -- for a constituent assembly that will adopt a new constitution and then form itself into the new state's first legislature. After that, it can be predicted that interest will wane, unless there is serious political violence or militia challenges to the Australian and other foreign peacekeepers along the borders.

It would be shame if this is paralleled by any falling away of the support we are giving as journalists or media groups to the emerging fourth estate of Timor Lorosae.

* Hamish McDonald is foreign editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He covered the Indonesian annexation of East Timor as a freelancer in Jakarta in 1975-78, and then was part of the Walkley-winning team that covered the 1999 ballot for the SMH and The Age.

************

JOURNALISTS SUPPORTING JOUNALISTS

Fairfax journalists' contributions to the IFJ Safety Fund are aiding media development in East Timor.At the urging of media outlets struggling to function and survive with minimal resources, an allocation of more than $35,000 of Fairfax-raised funds from 2000 was given to support the establishment of a media resource centre in East Timor and to provide training for Timor journalists and the Timor Lorosae Journalists Association.The media centre project, which is being organised with APHEDA, will help forge new and independent print and broadcast media, was also able to assist with the inaugural congress of the Timor Lorosae Journalists Association in January 2001.The media centre support project has obtained mobile media broadcast and training equipment, provided email access, a library of document and equipment resources, and facilitated workshops towards the development of East Timor�s new broadcast legislation.Under the Alliance program, Australian journalists will be involved in the ongoing training and support for journalists and organisers in East Timor. If journalists would like to volunteer for short term placements in the media centre, contact Jacqui Park on (02) 9333 0941 or at [email protected] you would like to contribute to the IFJ safety fund please send a cheque or money order to the IFJ Safety Fund, c/- MEAA, 245 Chalmers St, Redfern NSW 2016.

   Visit the Walkleys Magazine

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 94 contents

Interview: Global Action
The CFMEU has been a world leader in fighting the war on global corporations. John Maitland has been one of the generals.

Unions: Sisters United
In her May Day address, Bus Union state president Pat Ryan looks at the role women have played in the labour movement.

Politics: M1 and the Trade Unions
Phil Davey was one of the forces behind S11 but chose to sit out M1. He looks at this week's action.

History: Il Duce Roberto?
His modern-day fan club might not like it, but Rowan Cahill argues wartime PM Robert Menzies sailed close to the winds of Fascism.

International: Cuban Call for Global Labour Rights
An international meeting of union representatives in Cuba has vowed to start a campaign to defend workers rights from the effects of globalisation.

Economics: The G-Word
ACTU President Sharan Burrow asks if there's a better way forward for global trade.

Media: Birth Of A Nation
East Timor's young journalists are struggling with language barriers and technical difficulties most Australian media professionals wouldn't be able to comprehend. But they're keen and eager to learn.

Review: The Tremulous Hopes of the Fifties
Behind the the good times mythology of the 1950s was a desperate quest for the ordinary.

Satire: Teen Angst Poems a �Danger�
The Teen Angst Gun Massacre Affair has broadened, with staff at the NSW Department of Education revealing that �gangs of conspirators� have been found operating out of high school poetry competitions.

» Workers Seek Security on Back of Living Wage

» Temple Workers Return to India Victorious

» Unions Get Down to Workers Comp Talks

» Firefighters Hand Hoses To Politicians

» Unions Back Corruption Fight

» 'Workers Bank' Protest Rally Backs Cleaners

» Smoking Decision Sparks Call for Pub Bans

» Boycott Trade, Travel with Burma

» Qantas Takeover No Impulse Buy

» Sick Chicks Win Privacy Rights

» Arnotts Workers Seek More than Crumbs

» Jageth Backs Jakarta Hotel Workers

» Equity Members Send a Dear John Letter

» New Theatre Under Threat

» A Toast to May Day

» Activist Notebook