Asia

OhmyNews braces for losses

Whenever people talk about citizen journalism they usually get around to discussing Korea’s OhmyNews [ Korean edition | English edition ].

It’s well-established (since 2000) and very big (44,000 citizen scribes plus 90 paid staff including 65 editors).

It’s even credited with helping swing the Korean election result in 2002.

But a report by Moon Ihlwan in Business Week says OhmyNews is facing stiff competition and its barely break-even results are likely to turn to red ink this year.

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Indonesian election rejuvenates Radio Australia

More than 100 million Indonesians went to the polls in June, voting in their country’s first free elections since 1944.

Even though it took several weeks to count the ballots, it was soon clear that voters had rejected the ruling Golkar Party which had been led by President Suharto until his resignation amid civil unrest last year.

From a field of 48 parties, voters in the world’s largest Muslim nation favoured a secular party, the Indonesian Democracy Party-Struggle (PDIP), lead by a woman, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

“This election was quite different from the ones before,” said Indonesian-born Juni Tampi, who has worked at Radio Australia for the past 14 years.

“In past elections, you knew Golkar would be the winner, so there was nothing exciting. But this one was more interesting because everyone was looking forward to see who the winner would be.”

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