Ms Siri Lill Mannes from TV2, Norway, opened the session by explaining the background of the journalist exchange program between TV2 Norway and Metro TV Indonesia. Mannes launched the idea during last year’s Inter-media dialogue in Bali and it gained the support of both the governments of Norway and Indonesia. Mr Rullah Malik from Indonesia, was sent to work for the International News Desk at TV2 in Bergen, Norway, whereas Mr Sjøstrøm worked for the Metro TV station in Jakarta. The exchange program lasted for three months. Ms Mannes concluded that they would like to continue the exchange program and that they were considering to develop this scheme to include other countries and TV stations.
The two reporters continued the session by introducing a short video presentation of their experience as reporters in a foreign country. This was followed by questions from the audience on the effect of their experiences in the two countries.
Mr Malik said that mostly contributed to stories and incidents from Jakarta and Asia. He claimed that although he caught a glimpse of the Norwegian culture, three months was not nearly enough to make an impact on the public in terms of creating a deeper understanding of his own background and values. In addition, he told a story of a member of the City Council in Bergen that wanted to hang up pork meat to scare the Muslims from having their Friday prayers in the city centre. When questioned why he decided not to report this story to his employer in Jakarta, he said he practiced self-censorship to avoid such a story to be taken out of proportions in another country.
Mr Sjøstrøm jokingly told the story that he initially was considered to be a Christian spy by some of his co-workers in the initial phase of his stay in Jakarta. He also stated that he thought three months was to short to make an impact and to report on the stories that he would like. Furthermore, he expressed that he was surprised that religion did not play a larger part, since religious labels were not brought into the equation when they as reporters were doing a job. He appreciated how all reporters are the same, in the sense that they are looking for the good stories to report. He also praised the aid and support he had received from Metro TV.
The Danish Cartoons were also brought up by some of the people in the audience. The reporters were asked how this topic was approached in their host countries by colleagues and others. Mr Malik said that surprisingly, he received very few questions about this topic or other general questions about Islam in Indonesia. However, many people were interested in the religious developments in the Aceh province. Mr Sjøstrøm added that he didn’t feel that the Cartoon issue, despite causing demonstrations, had been very problematic in Indonesia. He said it took several weeks before anyone confronted him with this issue, and then only to ask him why his own TV station did not publish the cartoons. He also added that if had had more time, he would have liked to create stories of the extremist hard-liner groups in Indonesia. He said that although they make a lot of noise, he did not believe that the had a lot of support in Indonesia.
Summarising, the main conlusions from their experiences were:
A three month period is too short. You need more time to learn and understand more about the country you are operating in. More specifically, 6-12 months was given as an appropriate period of time.
In order to create a better understanding in their home countries, reporters must be given the chance to create more stories and in-depth coverage of the daily life issues in their host countries