AJI elects new president
National News - November 28, 2005 The Jakarta Post, Cipanas, West Java The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) elected Heru Hendratmoko of Radio 68H late on Saturday as its new president, replacing Eddy Suprapto of Kontan business weekly. AJI was set up in 1994, triggered by the closure of Detik, Tempo and Editor news publications. The new secretary-general elected along with Heru for the next three years is Abdul Manan, also of Tempo. Voters represented 684 members from 21 AJI chapters across the country. Heru, a cofounder of AJI, pledged that he would strive for "democratic press management" apart from continuing efforts to improve journalists' professionalism and welfare. A survey commissioned by AJI and released on Friday, reported that from 400 journalists interviewed in 17 cities, 65 percent received a monthly income in the range of Rp 600,000 to Rp 1.8 million. While 48.3 percent said wages should be the main agenda of unions, 66.8 percent said their companie...