Written by Tessa Piper

A radio news agency in Indonesia has won an international development prize for "producing and disseminating qualitative information through a network of local radio stations and by promoting professional ethics in the media world'. The award to KBR68H comes as the Jakarta-based media organisation celebrates 10 years of broadcasting, continues to expand its network of 650 radio stations across the vast archipelago and Asia, and plays a significant role in media training in the region.

The King Baudouin Foundation said it had decided to award its International Development Prize to the KBR68H because of its "contribution to the strengthening of democracy, tolerance and citizen participation."

Receiving the award from the King of Belgium at a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Brussels in front of an audience of 400, founder and managing director Santoso said the award was  "an important recognition of an initiative made by civil society actors -- in this case media -- to play a pro-active and productive role in a country's development."

He said he felt it was not enough for media in developing countries to simply take a position of reporting what happens.

"In these countries, where poverty and lack of education hamper development, there is a need for the media to also act as a tool for public education, as well as providing a platform for civic participation in public life," he said.

KBR68H, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, was founded in 1999 following the end of the Suharto regime. The aim was to promote independent information in a society where censorship had previously been prevalent.

The KBR68H agency provides eight hours a day of independent information and educational programmes to 650 radio stations.

Fewer than 100 of these are stations located in 10 countries across Asia, which produce local language versions of one of KBR68H's flagship 'Asia Calling ', a weekly regional current affairs programme.

The other 550 stations are dotted across Indonesia and serve the country's population of more than 240 million people living across an archipelago made up of more than 17,000 islands, of which 6,000 are inhabited.

Drive to produce quality issue-based journalism

According to production director Heru Hendratmoko, many of the programmes KBR68H produces are interactive theme-based talk shows covering themes related to religious tolerance, human rights, and the environment.

"It is important in today's Indonesia to make in-depth reports and to discuss issues such as deforestation or local corruption," he said.

Santoso points out that a radio news agency is the still the cheapest and most flexible way to reach a wide audience, and KBR68H's daily audience of 18 million people clearly attests to its popularity.

Young volunteer DJ on Radio Antero, Aceh, struck by the tsunami in 2004

KBR68H is also involved in training, and set up the non-profit Indonesian Association for Media Development (PPMN), dedicated to raising standards of media professionalism. So far more than 3,200 journalists, technicians, broadcasters and managers, have been trained.

KBR68H and PPMN also together conduct a ground-breaking project to build new radio stations in isolated parts of Indonesia, primarily in Eastern Indonesia, to provide much needed sources of information, education and entertainment to some of the least developed regions of the country.

Media and the development of remote area

"These new stations are playing a key role in the development process of these remote areas, encouraging citizen participation and strengthening democracy, with positive impact felt by the communities very soon after they go on air," Santoso said.

"Unfortunately though there remain dozens of regions across the country that remain without local media. We are hoping that the publicity surrounding our winning of this award will help us to secure funding to continue this important initiative."

New challenges and opportunities

KBR68H shows no sign of losing impetus and Santoso and his team continue to embrace new challenges.

Last year they started Jakarta's first and only environmental radio station, Green Radio , which is fully powered by solar power, and recently launched a television production house, Tempo TV, in conjunction with one of Indonesia's leading print media, Tempo .

With such a strong track record of innovation and impact it seems likely that we shall be hearing more about the radio news agency for some time to come.

Tessa PiperThe author, Tessa Piper, is the Indonesia Program Director for the Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF), which commissioned the research. For enquiries and further information contact tessa (at) minihub (dot) org.