Goenawan Mohamad

Goenawan Mohamad "is the founder and editor of Tempo magazine. The Indonesian newsmagazine was banned by the Suharto government in 1994 after publishing details of the government's purchase of aging East German destroyers, a confidential subject of dispute among Suharto's cabinet members. In 1995, Mohamad founded the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI), which produced alternative media intended to circumvent censorship. He later formed the Alliance of Independent Journalists, the only independent journalism organization in Indonesia. Following Suharto's resignation in May 1998, Mohamad led a group of reporters in restarting Tempo online and in print. He was a 1990 Nieman fellow at Harvard University and in 1997 received the Nieman fellows' Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. In 1998, he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists. He is currently a visiting history professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Mohomad is a member of the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists."

"Major figures in Indonesian journalism include Goenawan Mohamad, founder of Tempo magazine, prolific writer, and director of the Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information. Also, Mochtar Lubis (b. 1922), known widely for his searingly realistic novels, founded the newspaper Indonesia Raya (1949-74), which was closed down by the government. He was a prominent part of the liberal opposition to both Sukarno's Guided Democracy and Suharto's New Order and was jailed by both governments." 

He is on the International Advisory Board for Article 19.


 * Former Council Member, International Council on Human Rights Policy
 * Co-founder, Tifa Foundation
 * Advisory Committee, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
 * Winner of the 1998 World Press Review Award