Febriana Firdaus is an Indonesian

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

and

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

maker known for highlighting

discrimination against LGBT people {{broad-concept article Discrimination against LGBT people includes: *Discrimination against lesbians *Discrimination against gay men *Discrimination against bisexuals *Discrimination against asexuals *Discrimination against transgender men *Discrim ...

, West Papuan independence, and the 1965–1966 anti-communist mass killings; all of which are often considered

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

topics in Indonesia. __FORCETOC__

Career

Firdaus earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from

Airlangga University Airlangga University (Indonesian: ''Universitas Airlangga''; jv, ꦈꦤꦶꦮ꦳ꦼꦂꦱꦶꦠꦱ꧀ꦄꦲꦶꦂꦭꦁꦒ, abbreviated as Unair or UA) is the second-oldest university in Indonesia and also a public university located in Sura ...

in the

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...

capital of

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

in 2006. Upon graduation, she took on jobs as a

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for several Indonesian-language publications such as ''

Jawa Pos ''Jawa Pos'' ( 'Java Post') is an Indonesian national daily newspaper based in Surabaya, East Java. ''Jawa Pos'' was launched by Suseno Tedjo or The Chung Shen on July 1, 1949. The parent company, "Jawa Pos Group", is owned by Indonesian media t ...

'' and ''

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

'' up to 2014. Firdaus then became widely known by the Indonesian public for her investigative reports which have been published by several international organizations, including ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', ''

Rappler Rappler (portmanteau of the words "rap" and "ripple") is a Filipino online news website based in Pasig, Metro Manila, the Philippines. It was founded by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa along with a group of fellow Filipino journalists ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'',

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

, ''

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

'', and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. Her English-language reports often garner significant attention due to the perceived sensitivity of the issues she tends to highlight among the public, particularly those with conservative political leaning. This includes the West Papuan independence movement and humanitarian issues,

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

against the

LGBT people The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and social ...

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...

and its effects on

indigenous groups Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, as well as the 1965–1966 anti-communist massacre carried out by the

Indonesian military , founded = as the ('People's Security Forces') , current_form = , disbanded = , branches = , headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta , website = , commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo ...

under then-president

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...

. Firdaus is also an editor for the podcast ''Ingat 65'', which gives a platform to survivors and families of the massacre's victims. In 2020, Firdaus wrote, produced, and narrated the documentary film ''Our Mother's Land'' (''Tanah Ibu Kami''). Directed by Leo Plunkett, the film is produced by

Mongabay Mongabay (mongabay.com) is a conservation news web portal that reports on environmental science, energy, and green design, and features extensive information on tropical rainforests, including pictures and deforestation statistics for countries ...

and the Gecko Project. The film highlights the stories of women from disenfranchised and indigenous groups who have led movements against big corporations and government development projects that harm the environment. The documentary premiered at the

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) is an annual 4-day literary festival held every October in Ubud on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Established in 2004, it is considered Southeast Asia’s biggest and most meaningful Literary festival, li ...

Ubud Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali in Ubud District, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency. Promoted as an arts and culture centre, it has developed a large tourism industry. ...

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

, in October 2020 before being made available for streaming on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

the following month. In January 2021, ''Our Mother's Land'' was screened at the 19th Wild & Scenic Film Festival which was held online due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, where it received the Spirit of Activism Award.

Intimidation

Firdaus has been subjected to a number of incidents due to her works, particularly on topics related to anti-communist sentiment and West Papua. In 2016, while conducting an interview at a right-wing symposium on the alleged "revival" of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), Firdaus was expelled by members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) from the event. In 2019, she was a victim of

doxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this i ...

after several anonymous accounts on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

published her

personal information Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person. The abbreviation PII is widely accepted in the United States, but the phrase it abbreviates ha ...

. The incident led to threats against Firdaus who then delayed the publication of her investigative reports on the Papuan conflict.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Firdaus, Febriana Indonesian journalists Indonesian writers Indonesian women journalists 1983 births Airlangga University alumni People from Jember Regency Living people