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A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER - EAST TIMOR’S HOPE
An independent weekly newspaper has arisen from the ashes of last year’s turmoil in East Timor.
Tempo Semanal's founder, Jose Belo, has been a TV and print journalist since independence. Belo says the team is distributing at least one copy to every village in the country, thus reaching all districts and sub-districts around the country.
Staff from Australia’s Fairfax Media, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review and many other newspapers, are supporting this newspaper venture in East Timor through donations.
THE PAPER
Much of the paper is published in Tetum, East Timor's lingua franca. Some pages are also published in Indonesian, which is widely spoken and read, and in English.
Before Tempo Semanal began publishing in October 2006, little news and information reached beyond the district capitals. The information that filtered through was from Indonesian and even Australian radio.
Tempo Semanal (Weekly Times) is Timor Leste's first truly national newspaper.
Jose Belo, who is a veteran of the resistance, says the paper intends to keep its independence, and has also refused offers of "donations" of up to $US10,000 from most of the political parties. Belo has established a reputation as a hard-hitting journalist who is not afraid of the Government, or vested interests. He intends to publish and keep publishing articles critical of the Government, its agencies and ministers, when necessary.
THE SUPPORTERS
Journalists and other staff at Fairfax Media donate through their pay to the development program, which is focused on Tempo Semanal, but is branching out to general media training in East Timor.
The program's assistance includes a subscription to 300 copies of the paper each week, which are then distributed to districts around East Timor. This involvement means the paper and its information reach the wider population outside Dili, and also provides revenue for the paper to run its operations.
Jose Belo, the paper's editor and publishers, says the moral support from Fairfax has been important to the team. Late last year, the knowledge that financial backing was coming from Fairfax More Than Words - the Fairfax Media workplace giving scheme - gave a security that helped boost confidence in the idea, Belo said.
PRACTICAL MEASURES
The Fairfax program's commitment to buy 300 subscriptions a week provides a steady income flow and supports the distribution of information to East Timor's districts. The program is also paying the staff of 12 a basic allowance of $US10 a week.
The program sent two digital still cameras late in 2006 and the Timor Leste Photographers Association delivered one week's training in February 2007. The paper also has two production computers bought by the program. In January 2007, the program bought two small motorbikes for journalist's travel to the districts to source stories and distribute the newspaper.
THE FUTURE
This project is also branching out to include training for other media outlets and journalists in East Timor. The Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough said in reference to this project: "If people in post-conflict societies can set up newspapers that are independent and not locked in with local political parties or interests, it's a huge asset ... To get openness, to get newspapers working as they have to work to play their part in a democracy, they need to be funded - they need money, they need resources, they need guidance, they need training."
Staff working for this Australian newspaper company, are uniquely placed to help and support Tempo Semanal as it strives to buttress East Timor's emerging democracy. You too can help support Tempo Semanal by making a donation today . Simply select East Timor Newspaper Tempo Semanal on the drop down menus of the secure donation form.
A TIMORESE JOURNALIST
Jose Belo, who runs Tempo Semanal, is a handsome man with a startling joyful smile.
Belo has not always run a newspaper. For years during the occupation, he fought with the resistance against the Indonesian military.
The journalist John Martinkus describes some of Belo's experiences: "As a young boy he had fled to the mountains when the Indonesians invaded [in 1975]. In 1978 he was captured ... During the next 17 years, Jose was arrested by the Indonesian authorities seven times and jailed for a total of nine years. Each time, he was beaten and tortured.
"When he was arrested at a demonstration at Dili University in 1995, three Australians witnessed the beating he received. 'They were beating him so hard the police truck was rocking wildly, like a washing machine,' one of them said ... That time he was not given food or water for four days. His arms and legs were bound and he was hung upside down overnight. He was then beaten severely with truncheons, cigarettes were extinguished on his chest and arms, and electric shocks were administered to his genitals."
Now, in the free East Timor that Belo dreamed of in jail, his newspaper works to keep the Government honest.
XANANA
The President of East Timor, Xanana Gusmao, thanked Fairfax for the project, which he supports. He said in an interview in 2005: "We need not only equipment, but intensive courses. We feel the lack of crediting of our journalists. If you can bring training, then very good."
"We don't have economic journalists, or those to analyse the social side." This project fits with Mr Gusmao's stated aim of prioritising the development of small to medium-sized enterprises.
PROJECT HISTORY
In April 2005, Jose Belo launched what became a 16-page tabloid daily newspaper in Dili, called Diario Tempo. From the early the days, the paper struggled to meet deadlines, partly because of a shortage of equipment. The newspaper published in Tetum, with an English page and some Indonesian pages, too.
The paper's tiny office contained four computers, including two recycled from the tip for reporters. The paper requested help with basic equipment from a visiting Sydney Morning Herald journalist.
Diario Tempo challenged power in true journalistic fashion, as shown by its relentless effort to expose corruption with stories about the prosecutor-general's staff. The daily paper folded in early 2006, but Tempo Semanal emerged as a weekly to continue the work that Diario Tempo started.
VIDEO - SEE IT YOURSELF
A five-minute film on the daily newspaper, Diario Tempo, operating in July 2005, has been posted on http://media.fairfax.com.au/?rid=17926 (after a short ad).
At the time, during a visit to Diario Tempo's office, Belo said of Fairfax: "We really need your support." When that help started arriving, Belo wrote thanking Fairfax again, saying: "Our hope is very much with you."
THE ORIGINAL GOALS
These are the goals as stated when the project with Diario Tempo, the daily paper, was formalised by Union Aid Abroad in late 2005.
The project is expected to produce two types of outcomes:
Stage 1. In immediate term, Diario Tempo office will be equipped with more and improved publishing and printing facilities and the staff will be trained to use the new gear.
Goal: Raise $40,000 this year to buy computers, tape decks, motorbikes, cameras and other equipment, as well as pay for training of Diario Tempo staff. Precise budget available on request from jockcheetham@mac.com
Stage 2. In medium to longer term, Diario Tempo will have trained staff to continue quality news research, processing and publishing.
WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED
Now, in March 2007, we can look back at 2006, a terribly difficult and tumultuous year in East Timor. In terms of the project to help Tempo Semanal and East Timorese media, Stage 1 delivered these outcomes:
- December 2005: Two production computers.
- Early 2006: Diario Tempo, separate to this program, folded and intended to relaunch as a weekly.
- April/May/June/July 2006: Extreme destabilisation in Dili prevented the relaunch and indeed most normal life in the capital. Foreigners were mostly evacuated.
- September 2006: Jose Belo and his team relaunched the paper as a weekly, Tempo Semanal.
- November 2006: The project agreed to buy 300 issues per week at 50 US cents each as part of Tempo Semanal's commitment to distribute the weekly paper nationally.
- November 2006: Journalists and staff paid $US10 a week by the project. About 13 people in all.
- December 2006: Two Sony digital still cameras bought by the project and delivered.
- January 2007: Two motorbikes bought by the project for journalists' travel.
While there remain resources to be supplied to Tempo Semanal and other media outlets, the project in 2007 will shift to a training emphasis, or Stage 2 in the original goals of the project.
- February 2007: The project paid for the Timor Leste Photography Association provided one week's photography training to Tempo Semanal journalists. This is the first phase of a photography training program that aims to involve Fairfax photographers in training in East Timor later in 2007.
MOVING ON
The focus in the first half of 2007 is on training in the context of national elections in East Timor. Presidential election: Early April. Parliamentary elections: expected June 30.
Specifically, the Fairfax program is working on getting training in the areas of fair and accurate election coverage, independent and ethical journalism, and editorial independence.
Fairfax Media is matching the funds donated by staff in the 2006/07 financial year, up to a maximum of $10,000, a figure which looks like being met. In addition to the Fairfax company money, well over $10,000 has been raised in the 18 months of the program so far, mostly through staff donations via their pay.
A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU
Throughout this time, and in addition to these resources noted, the staff of Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, have provided enormous practical support.
From guiding and delivering the project, through to many hours of advice and support in Dili - including keeping the computers running and so much more - the East Timorese and Australian staff have helped keep the Tempo Semanal project, and indeed the paper, running.
Jock Cheetham
Sydney Morning Herald
March 30, 2007
jockcheetham@mac.com
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