Indonesia
Alliance of Independent Journalists
Hijri Unknown-Present (AH); Common Era Unknown-Present (CE)
Bina Bektiati, an Indonesian journalist, began reporting about politics for the independent newsweekly Tempo in 1991. When in 1994 the magazine was banned and its license revoked by the Suharto regime and government-controlled publication replaced Tempo, Bektiati refused to write for it. Instead, she challenged the government's actions in the courts and helped found the Alliance of Independent Journalists, Indonesia's only independent journalists association. Bektiati is a winner of the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award. Unable to find work in Indonesia like many of her fellow journalists, Bekiati in 1995, moved to Australia. However, she returned to Jakarta in 1996 and helped found the Institute for the Study of Free Flow of Information, researching and writing books on current affairs. Bektiati continued writing about politics--often under a nom de plume--and covered the protests leading up to the fall of Suharto and installation of President Habibie in 1998. The new government instituted modest reforms and in late 1998, Tempo was re-established and Bektiati accordingly returned to her position with the magazine and is now an editor at the publication. Bektiati co-edited Surat dari Rantau (Letters from Foreign Lands, 2015, Kreasi Mitramedia Utama), a book about the challenging experiences, lives, and stories of overseas Indonesians. Bina Bektiati is a regular contributor at The Jakarta Post, and a member of the Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia (SCAI).
