Chief of News in Rural Indonesia Finds Citizen Journalism Gives Villagers a Voice

By: Patrick Butler | 05/30/2012

Growing up in a village in rural Indonesia, a young boy by the name of Alim dreamed of one day owning his own TV. He never imagined he'd be the head of a broadcast news operation that reports on indigenous issues and serves as a voice for people who have never really had one before.

Today, Alim is chief of news at Ruai TV. His network works in conjunction with Ruai SMS, a mobile news network launched by Knight International Journalism Fellow Harry Surjadi that allows rural citizens to both receive and report local news to the provincial capital.

Columbia Journalism Review recently profiled the project and its results, which it calls an "exciting experiment."

News Category

Press Mention

Topics

Critical-Issues Reporting

Latest News

Journalists from Nigeria, Venezuela Win Prestigious 2025 ICFJ Knight Awards

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) today announced its 2025 Knight Award winners – two journalists who have demonstrated exceptional courage and perseverance in exposing wrongdoing in environments that are incredibly hostile to the press. The awardees are: César Batiz, an investigative journalist in exile who is the co-founder and director of the pioneering El Pitazo in Venezuela; and Philip Obaji Jr., a Nigerian journalist who has documented Russian atrocities in Central and West Africa as a correspondent for The Daily Beast.

Sustaining Journalism in Exile: New Toolkit Released

Once in exile to escape threats and danger, journalists soon face a new set of challenges: how to sustain their careers, communities and reporting from afar. ICFJ’s International Journalists’ Network (IJNet), in collaboration with the Network of Exiled Media Outlets (NEMO), has expanded its Exiled Media Toolkit to include a

IJNet Journalist of the Month: Amr Eleraqi

Originally from Egypt, Amr Eleraqi is a journalist, author and instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada. He is the founder of the award-winning data journalism website, InfoTimes, and a former ICFJ Knight Fellow. His latest book, on Python coding skills for journalists, was released at the start of this year. Eleraqi spoke with IJNet about his start in journalism, media in both the Middle East and Canada, his new book project and more.