Reshaping Cultural Policies for the Promotion of Fundamental Freedoms and the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in Indonesia
Indonesia has collaborated with UNESCO through the first cycle of the capacity-building programme on participatory policy monitoring, funded by Sweden (2014-2018). Indonesia’s collaboration resulted in the submission of the country’s Quadrennial Periodic Report (QPR) in 2016. Through this exercise, Indonesia has been committed to enhancing and establishing sustainable participatory monitoring mechanisms. With this established methodology, Indonesia is now embarking to elaborate its new QPR building on the 2017 Law regarding the advancement of culture as well as Culture White Papers, the Culture Strategy and new national statistic framework on culture and development. Based on the results of the first cycle, media diversity has been identified as one of the areas of monitoring needing further capacity building. Activities through this cycle (2018-2021) will hence focus specifically on monitoring media diversity to support Indonesia in drafting the dedicated section of the QPR and to establish sustainable mechanisms to monitor media diversity. This includes monitoring issues relating to diversity of content, media ownership, editorial independence and media freedom.
A training workshop on media diversity and the diversity of cultural expressions was organised from 17 to 19 September 2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Fifty-three persons, primarily working on Indonesian media sector, participated in this training, including central government departments, private media companies, universities, civil society organisations and individual experts. All the speakers underlined the importance of media diversity as a fundamental component of an inclusive and democratic society, reflecting the voice of all groups and in particular, those marginalized.
The purpose of this workshop is to assist the Department of Culture in preparing the section related to media diversity in the quadrennial periodic report, notably by creating a platform of exchange between the Department of Culture and media professionals for enhancing cooperation between the different stakeholders. The long-term objective is to develop a regular mechanism of monitoring media diversity as well as to equip media professionals with the tools to advocate for the promotion of diverse cultural expressions in the media.
The participants discussed digital transformation, regional balance in accessing local content, lack of data, lack of funds and infrastructure and media ownership during the training. Group discussions took place to identify measures to strengthen diversity for the media and the film sectors as well as gender equality in media.
In 2019, a media diversity workshop reinforced the capacities of the multi-stakeholder national team during the preparation of Indonesia’s second quadrennial periodic report submitted in 2020. Building up on the workshop’s results, the UNESCO office in Jakarta supported the elaboration of a national media diversity monitoring framework to foster informed policy making by pursuing the implementation of the UNESCO 2005 Convention in the area of media diversity. The preparation of the report followed five steps:
- Developing a conceptual framework and definition of media diversity and pluralism within the Indonesian context.
- Examining existing frameworks for monitoring media diversity in other countries and proposal for an Indonesian framework.
- Identifying and reviewing existing national laws, policies, regulations, monitoring frameworks, studies, and data on media diversity in Indonesia.
- Drafting the media diversity monitoring framework (MDMF).
- Analyzing the status of media diversity in Indonesia according to the proposed MDMF and identifying areas where regulations or monitoring require further study.
This report established a list of key indicators in order to monitor trends related to media independence, ownership plurality, public access, and media literacy, notably by addressing digital migration, as well as identify gaps. In this regard, six categories of indicators were identified: Regulatory safeguards, diversity of ownership, diversity of viewpoints, diversity of type and genre, diversity of culture, diversity of geographical reach.
The proposed monitoring framework was then applied to carry out an academic review of the country’s laws, policies, past studies, and data and analyze the status of the country’s media diversity.
Following the global launch of the 2022 Global Report, “ReIShaping Policies for Creativity”, the UNESCO office in Jakarta has initiated a digital campaign on social media to further disseminate the reflections of the report. They notably launched the “Creative Diaries initiative aiming to translate the themes addressed in the report into concrete experience of CCIS stakeholders. A series of video interviews, in a long format and a short format are to be released on social media throughout the year to showcase relatable stories from local partners from the cultural and creative industries in Indonesia, with regards to issues addressed in the report. The first video, released in August 2022, is an interview of the director of the MACAN Museum (Museum of Art and Contemporary Art of Nasantara) in Jakarta, explaining the museum’s perspectives on themes such as the Covid-19 crisis, the mobility of artists, and artistic freedom among other.
Watch the video: Creative Diaries: Museum MACAN [Full interview] - YouTube