Indonesian publication Tempo has a long history of speaking truth to power even in the days of authoritarian rule there. Executive editor Wahyu Dhyatmika tells Mediawatch how he deploys data to document tricky political issues like official corruption and even a rise in religious intolerance.
Wahyu Dhyatmika, Tempo Photo: RNZ / Colin Peacock
Last week a leading expert in data journalism - Alberto Cairo - told Mediawatch modern newsrooms need journalists who can deal with huge amounts of digital data.
These days, the devil of great stories is in the detail of big data.
He reeled off the names of several news organisations leading the field in data journalism and visualisation.
Some were the ones you expect: Washington Post, NYT, The Guardian. but also Ukraine:
"There are organistaion sin Latin America in countries where ddt is not as available or as rich as in the US oir here in new Zealand.," he told mediawatch.
La Nacion in Argentina creates it won data sewts and source collaborating with researchers and though their own surveys and other means,"
Tempo magazine's investigative reporting. Photo: screenshot
Anothye outfit that dos this is indonesia's Tempo.
It was founded as a news magazine in Indonesia during the Suharto dictatorship way back in 1971, and has been a standout source of critical reporting ever since in a country where several mainstream media groups are controlled to varying degrees by businessmen with political links and agendas.
http://niemanreports.org/articles/who-owns-the-news-in-indonesia/
Tempo is famous for investigative reporting that has uncovered many scandals and scoops down the years.
For example, several powerful people were exposed for hiding wealth after Tempo’s scrutiny of the Panama Papers in 2015.
Some of Tempo’s best scoops in recent years are the result of crunching a lot of numbers because
exec editor Wahyu Dhyatmika is a devotee of data journalism, using skills he honed at Harvard University Nieman Lab for journalism.
Recently he told me stories based on hard facts have much more impact in the online age:
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Whayu Dhyatmika presenting data-based investigations from Tempo magazine in Indonesia. Photo: PHOTO / RNZ Mediawatch
A 2012 report by the Jakarta-based think tank Centre for Innovation Policy and Governance and international development organization Hivos’s regional office in Southeast Asia, funded by the Ford Foundation, found that Indonesian media ownership is concentrated in 12 large groups, about half of them controlled by businessmen-turned-politicians.
While Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, it is a secular country.
The state officially recognises Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. However, conservative Muslim groups have challenged some of Indonesia’s promotion of religious diversity. The influence of those groups gained international attention after charges of blasphemy were laid against Jakarta’s incumbent governor Basuki “Ahok”Tjahaja Purnama. Ahok, a Christian, is now in jail.
b/anno: Wahyu Dhyatmika - exec editor of indep Indonesia magazine and online news publisher Tempo -- he’s also one of Asia Pacific region’s leading practitioner of data journalism and data visualisation
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