Jakob Oetama

Jakob Oetama (27 September 1931 – 9 September 2020) was an Indonesian teacher, journalist, and businessman who was one of the co-founders and owners of

The son of a retired teacher in Sleman, Yogyakarta. His journalistic career began when he became the editor of Penabur Weekly in 1956 and continued with the founding of Intisari magazine in 1963 with P. K. Ojong, who may have been inspired by America's Reader's Digest. Two years later, 28 June 1965, together with P. K. Ojong, Oetama founded the Kompas daily newspaper which he managed until his death.

In the 1980s, the Kompas Gramedia Group began to develop rapidly, especially in the field of communication. In addition, together with Jusuf Wanandi, Muhammad Chudori, Eric Samola, Fikri Jufri, Goenawan Mohamad, and Harmoko, Oetama also co-founded The Jakarta Post, Indonesia's national English daily newspaper.^[3]

Oetama died on 9 September 2020, coinciding with Kompas Television's 9th anniversary, at Mitra Keluarga Hospital Kelapa Gading, Jakarta and was interred at the Kompas Gramedia Building. He was given a state funeral on 10 September 2020 at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery.^[4]

Early life and education

Early life

Oetama was born on 27 September 1931 to a

Education

Oetama finished his basic education in Yogyakarta, and continued his education at Seminary High School in Yogyakarta (1951). In his early career, he worked as a teacher in Mardiyuwana Junior High School in Cipanas,

Oetama's journalistic career started when he became an editor of Penabur weekly in 1955.[9] In 1963, he established the Intisari magazine with his business partner and also fellow journalist, P. K. Ojong, which was inspired by Reader's Digest.^[10] Two years later, on 28 June 1965, also with Ojong, Oetama established the Kompas daily.^[9] Oetama and Ojong based the journalistic team of Kompas from the staff they had recruited for Intisari.^[11] He successfully managed Kompas throughout Suharto's authoritarian regime (1965–1998), which repressed the press and media freedom. Especially during the 1970s, when a number of news outlets were censored by the government, Kompas under Oetama approached journalism with caution and reported political issues with a moderating view, and hence largely escaped censorship.^[12] One exception was a two-week period in 1978 when Kompas was banned for reporting on student protests,^[13] and a conflict erupted between Ojong who would have preferred to close down Kompas to submitting to government demands, and Oetama, who was willing to fall in line with the government.^[11]

Oetama became the general manager and the leading figure of Kompas following Ojong's death in 1980.

Between the 1978 censoring and the fall of Suharto in 1998, Kompas did not publish open criticism of the Suharto government, leading Rosihan Anwar to criticize Oetama's cautious stance as "crab journalism".^[11] Despite this, however, Kompas remained politically autonomous, and still criticized the government with more subtle allusions.^[17] Kompas still maintained good relations with government-controlled media outlets and was willing to sanction their journalists or close certain publications instead of triggering conflict with the government or draw public ire – one example was the shutdown of the Monitor magazine and the expelling of Arswendo Atmowiloto, which was recommended by a committee chaired by Oetama directly.^{[12][18]: 5} Oetama remained editor-in-chief of Kompas until 2000, when he selected Suryopratomo as his replacement.^[19]