Woman holding newspaper in Indonesia. Photo by Faisal Allam on Pexels. Pexel license free to use.
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Journalists facing legal issues in Indonesia have the same rights as workers in other industries. The labor dispute process starts with mediation between the company and the worker. If no agreement is reached, the next step is a tripartite process with the Manpower Office. There, a mediator makes a recommendation.
Taufiqurrohman, who previously worked with CNN Indonesia and is now publishing podcasts twice a week, explains the process:
If both parties reject it, the case will be taken to the Industrial Relations Court. If either party disagrees with the court’s verdict, they can appeal to the Supreme Court.
Taufiqurrohman and thirteen colleagues were fired by Trans Media Corpora after forming a union on August 27, 2024. Eight of them retaliated by suing the TV station. Trans Media Corpora has filed an appeal, so both parties must wait another 155 days. This ten-month dispute has left Taufiqurrohman and his colleagues struggling to feed their families. To make ends meet, Taufiqurrohman has started working as a taxi driver.
He said journalists in contention with media companies are entitled to Social Security benefits to cover living expenses for unemployed workers. He says that, though workers were to be paid wages until the final legal decision on their termination, he has received nothing. The judge denied the applicant’s request for an interim injunction regarding wages.
Global Voices reached out to CNN Indonesia and Trans Media Corpora for their comments on this issue, but received no response.
In another case, Bethriq Kindy Arrazy and five other journalists were fired from Pinusi without notice from the publisher, PT Portal Media Nusantara. The employer has proposed going to court to resolve the disagreement. “The Press Council should have conducted factual verification of the media’s conditions,” Arrazy suggested.
When media companies and dismissed journalists have legal disputes, the Press Council does not intervene because it lacks jurisdiction. Noting that labor issues in media companies harm professionalism and press freedom, Abdul Manan, chair of the Press Council’s Legal and Legislation Commission, said:
Much of our work focuses on public disputes involving the press. I believe this puts pressure on us to start focusing on labor issues, especially given the abundance of cases involving media companies.
Indonesia lacks strict laws requiring media companies to protect journalists’ labor rights. The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) has reported many cases of media companies violating journalists’ rights. Edi Faisol, head of the Labor Division at the AJI, said:
Many journalists earn less than the Regional Minimum Wage. In addition, media companies often do not treat journalists as employees. Instead, they pay them per story and do not provide job or health insurance.