User:Dan Carkner/Warta Bhakti

Warta Bhakti (Indonesian: loyal news) was a short-lived but influential left-wing news publication in Indonesia during the Guided Democracy period, which was a successor to the most read Chinese Indonesian newspaper of the Dutch East Indies, Sin Po. During the height of its popularity in the mid-1960s the paper had the second highest circulation of any newspaper in Indonesia.

History
Warta Bhakti was the successor to a previous Indonesian language newspaper, Pantja Warta, which itself had been a renamed version of the long-lasting Chinese Indonesian newspaper Sin Po, which had been founded in 1910.

During the Guided Democracy period in Indonesia (1959 to 1966), President Sukarno greatly restricted press freedom and demanded oaths of loyalty from newspaper owners and editors. Some papers that refused to sign were shut down, such as Abadi and Pedoman. However, Warta Bhakti was an ally of Sukarno and its editor Karim Daeng Patombong was a leading force in the Persatuan Wartawan Indonesia (PWI, Indonesian: Indonesian Journalists' Association).

The newspaper remained quite popular and a 1964 US Government report estimated its circulation in July of that year as 45,000.

The paper involved itself vigorously in national politics in Indonesia on behalf of left-wing and anti-imperialist causes. For example in 1963 it declared itself fully in support of Sukarno's policy of Konfrontasi towards neighboring Malaysia. And in 1965 the paper declared its support for the creation of a national fifth column of popular mobilization to defend from outside interference. By 1965 conservative elements in the Indonesian Army were worried that that media in Indonesia was thoroughly dominated by left-wing newspapers such as Harian Rakjat and Warta Bhakti.

Warta Bhakti was closed down by Indonesian authorities during the Transition to the New Order period by General Suharto in 1965. The paper was accused of being sympathetic to the 30 September Movement by elements of the Indonesian Communist Party and was therefore closed by official order. Some of the editors became political prisoners, such as Djoni Sitompul. Warta Bhakti editor Karim Daeng Patombong was replaced as head of the now restructured journalism association by an army brigadier general, and the paper director Ang Jan Goan emigrated to Canada in 1968.