The Antara national news agency supplies news reports to local media organizations and is the only organization authorized to distribute news materials from foreign news services.
Jakarta, GIVnews.com – Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, the editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post which is an English daily and one of Indonesia's most prominent newspapers, was inaugurated on Friday (22/1) as president director of Antara News Agency (LKBN Antara).
His appointment was based on a Decision Letter issued by Minister of State Enterprises Rini M Soemarno which was dated 22 January 2016, Tempo.co reported[1] on Friday (22/1).
LKBN Antara is managed as a private company under the Ministry of State Enterprises. The national news agency supplies news reports to local media organizations and is the only organization authorized to distribute news materials from foreign news services. It was established in 1937 when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony.
The 49-year old Meidyatama, who had served as the editor-in-chief of the Post for about six years, took over from Syaiful Hadi as the head of LKBN Antara. Together with Syaiful Hadi, two directors of the news agency were also replaced on Friday.
Meidyatama disclosed on Friday that President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo had unexpectedly summoned him last month. In their meeting, the President asked him to improve the performance of LKBN Antara. Although the news agency is a state-owned organization, President Jokowi told him that all he wanted was that LKBN Antara will disseminate news stories about the government and that "he does not want to be supported".
"Pak Jokowi seems to like to see something that is directed to the future," said Meidyatama who had joined the Post in 1993 after working as an analyst for a Jakarta-based strategic consulting firm.
But, it is public knowledge that, under Meidyatama, the Post strongly supported Jokowi in the 2014 presidential election despite open complaints from Prabowo Subianto. The former army general narrowly lost to Jokowi in the election.
Last year, Meidyatama was named a suspect in a blasphemy case after the Post printed a cartoon that criticized the jihadist group 'Islamic State'. He could face up to five years in prison if found guilty. But, for unclear reasons, the legal process against him was halted. Meidyatama graduated from Canada's Carleton University and completed his Fellowship on international relations at Harvard University.
