Satrio Arismunandar

Satrio Arismunandar (born 1961) is a student movement activist from Indonesia. He founded the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) in 1994, asan organization that opposed the Suharto regime. Its involvement inthe labor movement led to him being forced to step down from the dailynewspaper Kompas in 1995.

Education and student activities

He was born in Semarang, on 11 April 1961 as thefirst child of six children in the Wiharto Arismunandar family. Hegraduated from 14th National Middle School in East-Jakarta in1980, and graduated from a major in electronics from the
University of Indonesia (UI) in 1989. His father, a middleofficer in the Indonesian airforce, died fromdisease just ten days before Satrio graduated from UI. Satrio'sactivities as a student were varied. He was a member of the DemocraticStudent Body, a head of the Electronics Students Association, member ofthe nature lover association, editing the campus newspaper and active inthe local mosque. He also participated in receiving new members for the Muslim Students' Association in 1981 and became a member of the ISAFIS (The Indonesian Student Association for International Studies), although in the end he decided to concentrate on journalism related activities on campus.

After working from 1986 to 1995 as a journalist, he went back to do a Master's degree in Defence Studies at the University of Indonesia, and graduated in August, 2000. His thesis was on "The role of student journalism in the student movement in 1998: A case study of the bulletin Move! at the time of stopping president Suharto", which became the material for a book.

Journalistic experience

Since he was a student, Satrio had already worked as a freelance writer (1981-1986), journalist for the daily Harian Pelita (1986-1988), the daily Kompas (1988-1995), the magazine D&R (1997-March 2000). As a journalist in Kompas, he became a specialist on the politics of the Middle East and international conflict, after reporting from the Gulf War in Iraq and the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Satrio was forced to step down from Kompas, because of pressure from the Department of Information Department of Indonesia.