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For almost 500 years, the East Timorese people had little experience of freedom of the press or access to uncensored information. The country was (often neglectfully) ruled by Portugal from the 1500s until 1975 and it was only toward the end of this period, after the socialist revolution in Lisbon, that the media began to critically address the issue of East Timorese independence. However, not long after the Portuguese abandoned the country in 1975, the Indonesian military invaded.

During the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, the population was fed a constant and restricted diet of government controlled news and information. In the face of a media operating primarily as propaganda machine, designed and maintained to mislead the international community about what was really going on in the country, an efficient network of clandestine media emerged. The violence and destruction that was carried out by the Indonesian Military and Militia after the historical East Timorese vote for independence on August 30, 1999 left much of the country decimated. The media sector was no exception. The country was left with no functioning broadcasting or printing facilities and the offices of the only daily newspaper, Suara Timor Timur, were burnt to the ground. The Indonesian government installations that had delivered satellite television and radio programming to almost every region of the country were destroyed, and the import of media from Indonesia was also disrupted.

In the aftermath of the destruction and after the withdrawal of Indonesian troops, East Timorese journalists, many recently returned from asylum in Kupang and Jakarta, were in high spirits and uniformly committed to building an independent East Timorese media. Journalists from all different backgrounds - student activists and people that had been involved with the creation of underground media, along with professional mainstream journalists - began to organise together to make this happen.

In December 1999 discussions began as to how to ensure the future freedom of expression and the press in East Timor. Taking into account lessons learnt from past restrictive governments, journalists were very aware that their newly won 'freedom' would not necessarily be all-encompassing, or forever, and decided that a journalists association was needed in order to guarantee the future integrity of the media. On December 22nd, after a week of post-conflict journalism workshops, the 'Tourismo' declaration was declared - promoting independent, anti-intervened, expression in the development of a democratic and independent media - and the Timor Loro Sa'e Journalists Association (TLJA) was formed.

During '99, there was an influx of new print media sources in East Timor - both daily newspapers and weekly magazines - five of which still exist. Others have not survived, mainly due to lack of funding and wages for staff. The former staff of Suara Timor Timur re-organised themselves to produce Suara Timor Lorosa'e, and the weekly tabloid Lalenok was the first and only regular print media source to be completely in the Timorese dialect, Tetum. Traditionally not a written language, Tetum is recognised as being technically 'incomplete', despite being the preferred language of most of the population. Virgilio da Silva Guterres, a founding member of TLJA who was also involved in Lalenok's production, comments on the significance of developing an all-Tetum publication: "Lalenok was very important because it was all in Tetum and one of its main aims was in order for us to train ourselves to write in Tetum, because in the past we'd never really done that. And also we hoped the publication would help to standardise the language."

Independent radio also prospered during 1999. During the Indonesian occupation of East Timor a group known as Radio Mubere used a mobile transmitter to illegally broadcast information from the guerrilla independence fighters working in the mountains (Falintil) to the broader population. Radio Mubere was just one node in the complex underground information network that enabled the East Timorese population to withstand their 24-year struggle. When independence was finally won in 1999, some of those involved with Mubere initiated the first East Timorese community radio station in Dili: Radio Falintil. The name Falintil was chosen so that the clandestine history of the station would be recognised. For the population of Dili, who had experienced years of limited access, Indonesian-controlled media, the philosophy of community radio - to give voice to the voiceless - was a very welcome, if abstract, notion.

There are now six community radio stations in East Timor; and bound to be more in the near future. In a country with a high degree of illiteracy, the medium is a popular one. Currently however, there are still many rural districts in the country that do not have access to a local media source. In response to this, two of the Dili-based stations: Radio Lorico Lian, and Radio Rakambiah, undertake regular 'roaming broadcasts', in which a group of volunteers take a mobile transmitter to remote villages and allow the population open access broadcasting, to talk about the issues affecting and concerning them. They also teach the local people how to use the radio equipment.

A group of programmers also staged a broadcast protest recently in front of the United Nations Transitional Administration office to highlight the issues affecting the remote communities they had visited. Joey Borges, Community Radio Program Officer for Apheda in East Timor was part of the demonstration. He comments: "the government don't like us, they think we are 'radical media' but it's the community that is radical, (we are just giving them a voice.)" Borges, formerly a technician and programmer with both Radio Mubere and Radio Falintil, is currently working, together with the staff and reporters from East Timor's six community stations, to set up a national community radio association to strengthen the philosophy and practice of community radio stations throughout East Timor.

Like many of the media sources initiated in ‘99, Radio Falintil thrived on volunteer energy for a year and a half, but has recently experienced a wane in commitment, with some technicians and reporters leaving on the basis that the station will never be able to provide them with a wage. Sadly, Lalenok also suffered post ‘99 from lack of volunteers, and was forced to fold a year ago.

According to Guterres, two and a half years down the track, many people initially involved in media production in East Timor have now come to the realisation that they could not continue to work as volunteers forever. He comments: "We realised that in a different situation (freedom) you could not treat people in the same way. In the struggle, everyone was united and willing to do anything for nothing. They could forget their personal differences to unite. Now that there is freedom people are willing to contribute but also say: you must understand, I need something to eat. Even volunteers everywhere, they need food. That was one of the mistakes that I confess to. We were wrong to think we could work like that long term."

By all accounts, the energy and human resources behind media production in East Timor has certainly receded since 1999, with many people forced to find work in other fields to support themselves. Although some of the print publications in Dili do have paid staff, they receive a minimal amount. Other media sources still struggle to survive on volunteer labour. Without welfare assistance and when living costs are high compared to incomes, volunteer work is not a luxury that many East Timorese can afford to undertake on a long-term basis.

The journalist association has also hit hurdles in the last two years. Because most of those involved with initiating TLJA were also active journalists and therefore heavily focussed on creating, developing and professionally maintaining media in the first year of independence, Guterres believes they had no time to sit down and talk about the long, or even short-term, plan of the association. In January 2001, TLJA had their first congress to agree on some long-term objectives. It was at that time that differences began to emerge. Journalists from different backgrounds, all with different levels and concepts of professionalism, began to clash. This divide in interests has since resulted in the emergence of a second journalist association: the East Timor Journalists Union; which two former, founding, members of TLJA have been involved in initiating. Officially, no explanation was given for their break-off.

Guterres comments on their departure: "I think its normal, it's a good sign for us that we are free to organise so no-one is forced to stay," but is clearly regretful that the human resources have been diluted even further. With obvious fatigue in his voice he states: "I think it's becoming harder to gather journalists together."

On plans for the future: Guterres hopes to re-instigate Lalenok, but this time not without the funds to implement an infrastructure and ensure some staff wages. He is noticeably regretful when he talks about the publication's demise, but his eyes shine as he tells me: "I think we need some tragedies to learn, without mistakes we could not survive. When something happens like that we can learn and in the future we might…still make mistakes, but at least they'll be different ones!"

The media landscape in East Timor is very much in development stages. Although TLJA are in the process of developing a training course in conjunction with the University, the country is still lacking effective means to train and support its journalists. Guidance, support and assistance is still needed on many levels in order for it to foster into the critical, independent and democratic sector that it has the very real potential to become. One can only hope, as is so often the case in development situations that the media sector in East Timor does not succumb to the many spurious funding and support sources that it is vulnerable to. Sadly, with the World Bank’s recent plans to initiate and fund a number of new community radio stations in the country, this does remain a possibility.

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