The Printing Press Project took a giant step forward in July. A three month supply of newsprint and ink arrived – as did a two-man team from Indonesia to set up the press and to begin test runs.

Setting up the Heidelberg Offset Press is a complicated process. It requires lots of calibrating of equipment, adjusting the proper amounts of ink, placement of the plates on the printer, ensuring the printer gets a proper amount of electricity and a variety of other steps, including training the local staff on how it’s all done.

These duties are being handled by two Indonesian experts, Bambang Hermanto and Joko Purwanto. Both are from Surabaya. They are being shadowed by two Timorese who are learning the ropes of operating the press.

The printing press is operated by three independent newspapers – The Dili Weekly, Kla’ak and Timor Post. The partners have named their ‘for profit’ company ‘Independent Printing Press Timor-Leste’ or IPPTL.

The Dili Weekly will become the first newspaper to use the new press on August 2nd. ICFJ has ‘loaned’ staffer Olinda Lucas to IPPTL for at least three months. She will serve as general manager of IPPTL, setting up the office structure and overseeing the day to day operations of the business.

Maubisse Media House/Radio Station

The Maubisse Media House and Community Radio Station had a special guest on the evening of July 25. Dr. Frank Young, the highest ranking USAID official ever to visit Timor-Leste, stopped by for a tour and was interviewed on the brand-new radio station that ICFJ had helped to launch, in partnership with the local community, on June 4th. Dr. Young said the visit to the station brought back memories of his college days in California when he worked at his campus radio station.

Radio Maubisse Mauloko reaches a potential audience of 21,000 and its signalcovers most of the nine communities that make up Maubisse. The coordinator for the radio station/media house is Joaquim Coutinho, who grew up in the area.

A seven member board of directors provides oversight for the community radio station and, among other things, ensures the station engages the community.

The board was elected by members of the community last year.

Meet The Press

‘Meet The Press’ attracts a variety of guests – giving journalists access to newsmakers. There were three guests, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He talked about the border dispute between Timor-Leste and Indonesia. He said Indonesian soldiers had destroyed two houses in Naktuka, along the border area. A spokesman from the Indonesian Embassy was invited to take part in the program, but declined the invitation.

Nearly 20 journalists took part in the event – including reporters from government-funded Radio Timor-Leste, Journal Diario Nacional, the Timor Post, Time Timor, Radio Timor Kmanek, Business Timor, CJITL and TimorToday.com.

ICFJ Provides Transport for Journalists to Border Region

Three days earlier, on July 27th, ICFJ’s TOT coordinator Budi Setyo organized pool coverage of an event on the Timor Leste-Indonesian border about new border passes for people living in the border area. The goal is to speed up the process for those crossing the border on a regular basis. Among the media outlets that traveled with Mr. Setyo to the border were reporters from Timor Post, The Dili Weekly, STL, Journal Diario Nacional and TimorToday.com.

Charge d'affaires Visits ICFJ

Jonathan Henick, the US charge d’affaires at the Embassy in Dili, toured ICFJ’s offices on July 20 – including the Dili Media House. Mr. Henick also observed and then participated in a TOT training that was underway during his visit.

He took several questions from the TOT’s and discussed Freedom of Speech issues.

It was his first visit to ICFJ.

Media Law

During July, the media law team of Francisco Pinto and Sarah Harmelink continued their consultations with KOLKOS regarding the National Mass Communications Policy. The policy was approved earlier this year by the Council of Ministers.

It was discovered during a series of meetings with KOLKOS that local journalists did not have a strong awareness of what implications this policy has for them and their profession.

It was decided that KOLKOS (with funding from IREX) would host a half-day discussion entitled "The Role and Responsibilities of the Media in Building Stability and Democracy".

In a meeting with leading KOLKOS members Otelio Ote, Luis Evaristo and Francisco de Silva, it was decided that the objective of this discussion with the journalists would be to: enrich the knowledge of the media in relation to the Code of Ethics for Journalists; gain an understanding of the role of the Press Council and the need for self-regulation, and inform journalists about the National Mass Communications Policy and what it means for them.

The half-day conference was held on July 30 July and was attended by more than twenty journalists. On the discussion panel were Otelio Ote, the president of KOLKOS, Francisco da Silva of TLMDC and Sofia Calado, Legal and Media Adviser at the Secretariat of State of the Council of Ministers, and Hugo Fernandes of The Asia Foundation.

Questions focused on the language that journalists would be required to communicate in (Portuguese or Tetum); what the requirements would be for a journalist to gain accreditation under the system proposed by the government, and what the role of the government-run Media Council would be.

Media Analysis Team

ICFJ continues to monitor the quality of two daily newspapers – Timor Post and Journal Diario Nacional. The reports are shared with TOT from each of the respective papers. The goal is to provide them with feedback on what can be done to improve the quality of their newspapers. The monitoring focuses on balance, accuracy, lead writing and newsworthiness. The Media Analysis Team of Ivan Lopes and Bendita dos Santos analyzes 30 articles over each two week monitoring period.