This piece was written by Masduki and Engelbertus Wendratama and published by Journalism and Media,  an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal on journalism and the media.

This article discusses the digital activism model for advocacy of press freedom in Indonesia. This study examined the model and characteristics of digital activism and inhibiting factors in the advocacy of press freedom, carried out by civil society organizations, social activists, and media professionals. Using qualitative methods, this paper provides answers to the question of how the digital activism model aimed at countering threats to press freedom in a post-authoritarian country with a case study of Indonesia? How does digital activism emerge and form cross-sector collaboration?

Given the broad scope of digital activism in Indonesia, the researchers chose two cities that represent the national and regional/provincial spectrum: Jakarta, the nation’s capital, and Yogyakarta, a prominent student city in the country. The current study found a unique digital activism model in Indonesia that is a spectator collaboration: participants and initiators of activism are involved together in clicktivism, metavoicing, and assertion. Social activists and independent media activists develop systematic collective actions in the digital realm, such as online petitions and press releases, republication, and fundraising for the sustainability of the activism itself.

This paper also found a gladiatorial model: media managers as victims and activists merged with more organized social movements, signaling that press freedom has become a collective agenda of pro-democracy advocates in Indonesia.

Please find the article here