With VOA gone, Indonesian media partners at a loss as adversaries move in

Before it was silenced, Voice of America reached 68 million people a week in Indonesia, a third of the country’s population. It did do so mostly through its Indonesian Service, which broadcast 66.9 hours of audio and video reports each week in the country’s main language, Bahasa Indonesia. The service delivered in-depth daily news to the world’s largest Muslim population, and its Jakarta bureau played a key role in VOA’s coverage of U.S.-China dynamics throughout Southeast Asia. In VOA’s absence, Beijing’s influence on Indonesia and the wider region is growing.

For 83 years, VOA’s Indonesian Service has been there for Indonesians, delivering unbiased news and information when they needed it most — during World War II, while the population was under Japanese occupation; throughout its fight for independence from the Dutch in the late 1940s; through more than three decades of military dictatorship under President Suharto; and through its transition in the late 1990s to democratic rule.

However, since President Donald Trump issued his March 14 executive order that effectively began dismantling Voice of America, the service has gone dark. It has stopped producing broadcasts and digital media content.

Connecting Indonesians through more than 500 media partners

Before it was taken off air, the Indonesian Service partnered with a network of more than 500 media outlets to amplify its reach. This included some of the biggest national and regional TV networks in the country, such as Metro TV and SCTV. The service had the most TV and radio affiliates in a single country of any language service within all of U.S. international media. It covered all urban areas of the country as well as remote regions and many of Indonesia’s 17,500 islands.

After VOA was silenced, media outlets across Indonesia spoke out, urging the U.S. government to allow the broadcaster to continue its collaborations. TVRI World, a program airing on Indonesia’s national public television network with reach across the archipelago, described VOA’s programming as “extremely pivotal.” iSwara Radio Jakarta, a leading station serving the capital’s 43 million residents, said, “Voice of America brings immense value.” Meanwhile, Liputan6, a popular news program on the Jakarta-based national network SCTV, noted that during the 2024 U.S. election, “viewers in Indonesia could get real-time updates” from VOA.

The loss of VOA’s programming is most felt by local radio stations, including Radio Andika in East Java, Max FM in East Nusa Tenggara, and the Kardopa Network that includes several radio stations in North Sumatera. As reported by Kompas, the country’s online newspaper with the highest readership, these smaller outlets with less resources have become “real witnesses to how a political decision at the White House can have an impact thousands of kilometers away.”

Radio Andika’s Station Manager Adnan Rahardja noted that even when the subject is about the U.S. election, VOA’s Indonesian American journalists can make the news “more resonant, more impactful” to Andika’s listeners.

“VOA is popular because their news is accurate, credible and easy to digest,” director of Radio Kardopa, Jupti Ester, told Kompas.

These media partnerships were about more than delivering the news; they were a powerful tool of American soft power. Eddy Prasetyo, the editor-in-chief of Suara Surabaya, the top regional radio network that broadcasts throughout East Java said, “For us, it also serves as a bridge of friendship between the Indonesian and U.S. communities.”

“Our partnership goes far beyond broadcasting. We received journalistic training [from VOA] focused on producing honest, independent and credible news,” said Meli Supiyati, station manager at Ganie Radio Simalungun, a top radio station in North Sumatra. Young Indonesian journalists also benefitted from a highly prestigious and competitive fellowship that allowed them to gain six months work experience with the VOA Indonesian Service in Washington. Since its inception in 2007, the program has launched the broadcast careers of 19 Indonesian journalists, while instilling principles of independent, fact-based journalism to the countless outlets that later hired them.

In collaboration with the Indonesian Independent Journalist Association and various universities, VOA Indonesian Service for several years ran VOA Goes to Campus, a program that teaches students media literacy and core journalism skills.

Delivering the news in ways no other outlet can

VOA’s Indonesian Service provided robust coverage of issues impacting the Muslim world, including conflicts in the Middle East. The service delivered intensive coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, deploying reporters to Jerusalem and the West Bank to document the conflict’s human impact. 

The service delivered extensive coverage of China’s influence in Indonesia from investment and trade, to infrastructure and energy. It also provided audiences with critical social and historical context on the two countries’ entanglement, including former President Suharto’s policy of forcibly assimilating Chinese Indonesians through the banning of Chinese-language schools and media. It extensively covered the 2022 G20 Bali Summit, including the meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, significant for its role in stabilizing U.S.–China relations amid rising strategic tensions.

VOA provided a uniquely American perspective to Indonesians, bringing news about the United States and U.S. government policies to a geopolitically significant country — not only the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, but the world’s third largest democracy and fourth most populous nation. VOA’s Indonesian Service functioned as a de facto Washington bureau for many Indonesian media outlets, providing live reports and breaking news updates for television, radio and digital affiliates, especially during key moments such as U.S. presidential elections, inaugurations and major policy announcements. It also produced a podcast on U.S. politics, co-hosted by VOA’s White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara, called “Behind the Scenes of the White House.”

VOA Indonesian reporter Rivan Dwiastono broadcasts from the roof of VOA headquarters in Washington. The Indonesian Service is responsible for covering and explaining U.S. policies to its weekly Indonesian audience of 68 million.

Another key focus of coverage was of the Indonesian diaspora in the United States, highlighting the perspectives of Indonesians as immigrants, from blue-collar workers to professionals, small business owners and community leaders. These stories helped audiences in Indonesia better understand American society and values through the lived experiences of fellow Indonesians.

The service was also known for its coverage of social issues including its scrutiny of child marriages in Indonesia, which led to a VOA-wide project examining the practice around the world. That project, “The Worth of a Girl” won multiple awards, including a 2020 Clarion Award and a New York Festivals Silver Medal. Another documentary the service produced called “Exposing Exes’ Secrets” investigated online gender-based violence in Indonesia. 

Despite operating on an annual budget of only $4 million, or just 1.1% of VOA’s $361 million budget in 2024, VOA’s Indonesian Service contributed 18.3% of the organization’s global audience, making it one of the most cost-effective and impactful language services within the agency. 

Adversaries filling the void

Chinese state-run media outlets, including Xinhua and China Global Television Network (CGTN) have been increasing their presence in Indonesia for years. And now, with VOA off the air, affiliates in Indonesia are increasingly turning to China to fill the void. Before VOA was silenced, one Indonesian news channel hosted a weekly segment for the country’s Chinese diaspora that featured reports in Mandarin from both VOA and Chinese state television, but now audiences hear only the reports from China, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Freedom House rates Beijing’s media influence efforts in Indonesia as “high” and says China has been increasing its campaign in recent years. With VOA out of the picture, Beijing’s efforts to influence Indonesians go unchallenged.