Muhammad Chudori (December 24, 1926 – March 23, 2013) was an Indonesian

journalist 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 ...

. Chudori co-founded ''

The Jakarta Post ''The Jakarta Post'' is a daily English-language newspaper in Indonesia. The paper is owned by PT Niskala Media Tenggara and based in the nation's capital, Jakarta. ''The Jakarta Post'' started as a collaboration between four Indonesian med ...

'' in 1983 and served as the

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

's first

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

. Chudori was born in

Indramayu Indramayu ( jv, ꦆꦤ꧀ꦢꦿꦩꦪꦸ; zh, 南麻由), named after the God Indra, is a town and district which serves as the capital of Indramayu Regency in the West Java province of Indonesia, and is located in the northern coastal area of ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, on December 24, 1926. He worked as a journalist for the

Antara Antara is an Indonesian news agency organized as a statutory corporation. It is the country's national news agency, supplying news reports to many domestic media organizations. It is the only organization authorized to distribute news material ...

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency may ...

from 1956 until his retirement in 1983. He predominantly covered foreign policy and the economy for Antara. He had also served as Antara's bureau chief in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

as well. Chudori had close contacts within the Indonesian government and has been described as well-versed in the economic policies of the

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 ...

government at the time. Suharto's Economic Minister

Widjojo Nitisastro Widjojo Nitisastro (23 September 1927 – 9 March 2012) was an Indonesian economist, who was known as the main architect of the Indonesian economy during the New Order regime of president Suharto, serving as Minister for National Development ...

often included Chudori, a prominent economics reporter, as an official member of the Inter-Governmental Group for Indonesia (IGGI) annual meeting in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. In 1983, Chudori co-founded the

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

newspaper, ''

'', shortly after retiring from Antara. He also became the first general manager of ''The Jakarta Post''. Chudori worked to form a coherent newspaper staff while avoiding the government censors of the Suharto government. According to The Jakarta Post's co-founder and first

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

Sabam Siagian Sabam Pandapotan Siagian (4 May 1932 – 3 June 2016) was an Indonesian journalist. He served as the first editor in chief of ''The Jakarta Post''. Siagian departed the ''Jakarta Post'' in 1991 upon his appointment as Ambassador of Indon ...

, "We all came from different backgrounds. It was not easy as general manager in these circumstances with the task of producing a quality newspaper. Muhammad Chudori was once the Antara bureau chief in the Netherlands and was the eldest among us. He would listen patiently to our various arguments and endure our idiosyncrasies and gradually forged a working team...I think that was his biggest achievement." In 1997, the Indonesian Ministry of Information honored Chudori for his career. Chudori's health declined since he fell and broke his femur in the Fall of 2012. He underwent two surgeries following the accident. Muhammad Chudori died at his home in

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

, on March 23, 2013, at the age of 86. He was survived by his wife, Willy Septiana, his daughter, Leila S. Chudori, a journalist and writer at Tempo magazine, and his granddaughter,

Rain Chudori Rain Chudori-Soerjoatmodjo (born 10 November 1994) is an Indonesian author, curator, multidisciplinary artist, and actress. Chudori has published several books. Biography Chudori is the daughter of writer Leila Chudori and curator Yudhi Soerjoa ...

, a writer. He was buried in Karet Bivak Cemetery in

Central Jakarta Central Jakarta ( id, Jakarta Pusat) is one of the five administrative cities () which form the Special Capital Region of Jakarta. It had 902,973 inhabitants according to the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 1,056,896 at the 2 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chudori, Muhammad 1926 births 2013 deaths The Jakarta Post people Indonesian journalists