Radio Era Baru’s troubles began in 2007 when the Chinese Embassy sent a letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs, copied to the National Intelligence Agency, and other bodies, warning of damage to relations between Indonesia and China should Era Baru continue to broadcast.
Era Baru broadcasts in Indonesian but also in Chinese, meaning that it reaches the large population of ethnic Chinese living in Indonesia—a population the Chinese regime seeks to influence—and the heavy Chinese freighter traffic in the nearby sea lanes.
Era Baru’s programming includes reports on human rights abuses in China and political developments in China. It regularly broadcasts as a serial The Epoch Times editorial series “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” which gives an uncensored account of the nature and crimes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Since the embassy sent its letter, the station has faced a series of shutdowns, equipment confiscations, court cases, and for Gatot Machali, the director of Radio Era Baru, a suspended jail sentence.
Grey Zone
The recent Supreme Court decision in effect annuls Machali’s sentence. He was charged with wrongly broadcasting on 106.5 FM—but the ruling indicates that that frequency had been improperly taken from Radio Era Baru and assigned to Sing FM in the first place.
Sing FM is still broadcasting on the frequency, despite the Supreme Court decision. Era Baru will be sending Sing FM a legal letter, explaining the decision, and asking it to relinquish the signal.
One of the pitfalls for Era Baru is the complex process it needs to go through to broadcast in a fully legal manner in Indonesia.
Broadcasters require an approval to broadcast on a particular frequency—handled by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, whose central agency has regional affiliates—and also a license or permit to broadcast, which is a separate process requiring the approval of both the ministry, and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission, which also has regional units and a central agency.
Sopingi, the bureaucrat that vows to block Era Baru, is the head of the regional Batam office—Era Baru is located on the island of Batam—for the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission. In theory, that agency monitors radio frequencies and ensures that broadcasters are licensed.
In practice, things in Indonesia are much vaguer than that, according to Armando.
“Most of the radio stations and TV stations in Indonesia broadcast their programs nowadays without a formal license. ... The majority of them did try to process their license, they went to the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission, they tried to comply with regulations and the law, but most have not received any legal binding license from the government and the commission up till now,” he said.
