Collaboration is the key and challenge of investigative journalism

Investigation collaboration. The days of investigative journalists are likened to Lone WolfWolf who walked alone, was outdated. The increasingly complex world, the territorial boundary is no longer clearly hit by technological advances, making corruption crimes increasingly networking. Collaboration becomes a keyword. The following is an article about the Tempo Joint Investigation Program, the Tempo Institute and Tempo collaboration program supported by Free Press Unlimited and this year is also supported by the Center for Energy Research of Asia (CERA). This joint investigation is a work initiative with journalists, cross -provincial, even cross -country. Bagja Hidayat, a Tempo reporter, wrote it in an article which was also published in this July 16 2018 edition of Tempo magazine. ****
The Sadik Alliance, about the collaboration of journalists, made the coverage of cross -provincial investigations, cross -country.The encouraging news arrived on Monday last week: Tempo coverage of human trafficking from East Nusa Tenggara to Malaysia received an honorable or honorable award from The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA). Hong Kong -based non -profit organization is a worldwide media association in Asia. The judges judge the coverage entitled “Buying and selling people to Malaysia” which is translated into “Trafficking Humans to Malaysia” as “impressive cross-border collaboration, supported by careful documentation and resilient work tracking all players and convinces them to speak.” The coverage, published on March 20, 2017, is indeed a collaboration between Tempo and Malaysia journalists now. Tempo sent Stefanus Edi Pramono to Selangor to track the refinery which was a shelter of illegal female workers from Indonesia. Pramono was accompanied by Alyaa Alhadjri from Malaysia now when he met the refinery owner who refused his crime published.
Tempo Investigation Coverage which received an Honorable Mention Award at the Sopa AwardAlbert Tei, the businessman, then forced the two journalists to sign a statement not to publish their findings. Of course both of them refused. From Jakarta, Tempo Wahyu Dhyatmika’s executive editor, called Albert and negotiated to release Pram and Alya. The conversation between the two was tense. Albert Tei then released the Pram-Alyaa and the trafficking investigation of the person was published in the two media. In Malaysia, the coverage makes a scene. Malaysian police officers then arrested Albert and set him as a suspect in human trafficking. The Indonesian government then repatriated hundreds of migrant workers who were held captive and enslaved to their hometown here. The coverage will not occur if not proposed by Yohannes Seo, a Tempo contributor in Kupang. He had long heard in the city and villages of NTT many people left for Malaysia by falsifying documents and many people returned only. The story he submitted in a proposal in the Investigation Program with Tempo (IBT) which was defended by the Tempo Institute. Simultaneously included proposal Bambang Riyanto, an analysis journalist in Medan, who wanted to track the information of the captivity of a worker from NTT in the provincial capital. These two proposals were then united because they formed the trafficking chain of human trafficking from Kupang-Surabaya-Medan-Malaysia. IBT is an effort to stimulate local journalists in many regions to make investigative coverage about problems in their homes, which are supported by Free Press Unlimited. Indonesia is a broad republic with a variety of problems. Tempo reporters in Jakarta cannot reach all the scattered cases. IBT became a bridge of local journalists to reveal crime in their area and then published in all outlets of the Media Tempo Group.

This year IBT entered its third year, with the support of FPU and Center for Energy Research Asia (CERA). In 2016, the coverage of ship slavery from Indonesia on Taiwan ships also received an award as a report of the Award for Excellence from Sopa. Initial information this investigation came from the reporter of The Reporter in Taiwan who heard that a ship from Tegal died in the waters of their country. The reporter reporter came to Indonesia, on the contrary Mustafa Silalahi from Tempo left for Taiwan to prove the rumors. The result is an investigation collaboration that reveals the dark side of the Indonesian-Taiwan fishing business. Children of ships from Indonesia lived pathetic on ships in the middle of the Asian sea, they suffered with very low salaries, even tortured and hungry. The readers, we believe the media is present in your middle to uncover the crimes that are covered so that there are no more similar crimes in the future. Because, investigation coverage is a mirror of the growth of a free press. Free press is the main prerequisite for democracy to create a better Indonesia. With IBT we want to transmit this spirit to our colleagues in the area, so that more investigative coverage so that similar crimes in the future can be prevented. Only with the alliance of sadic people can we still hope that Indonesia will be brilliant in its time. *** The original version was published in the letter rubric from the Editor of Tempo Magazine, July 16, 2018.