Early history

Harian Rakjat was first published on 31 January 1951, and was originally named Soeara Rakyat (lit. 'People's Voice'). In its heyday, Harian Rakjat was the most popular political newspaper ever published in Indonesia, with average circulation of 23,000 copies in the 1950s and 1960s.^[1] The newspaper was sold at a retail and subscription price of Rp 0.60 and Rp 14.5 a month, respectively.

Bans and closure

With its confrontational style, Harian Rakjat always opposed other parties and the authorities. Because its message was considered to have violated the rules imposed by the government of the time, Harian Rakjat was occasionally banned. The first ban occurs lasted for 23 hours, between 13 September 1957, at 21.00 and 14 September 1957, at 20:00. Other newspapers, such as Indonesia Raya, Bintang Timur, Pemuda Merdeka, Djiwa Baru, Pedoman, Keng Po, and Java Bode, as well as three news agencies: Antara, PIA, and INPS were banned for the same time period.^[2]

The ban was repeated on 16 July 1959, for a month because the paper published the PKI Central Committee statement of 3 July, entitled "Evaluation after one year of the Working Cabinet does not guarantee the implementation of the 3 chapters program, so they should be retooled immediately". On 2 August 1959, a month after the ban, Harian Rakjat returned to print.^[3] On 2 November 1959, the newspaper was banned again by the War Authority (Penguasa Perang). This time, the reason was not so clear. This led to the Harian Rakjat circulation expansion led by PKI officials D.N. Aidit, M.H. Lukman, and other PKI activists, who directly took to the streets.^[3] On 9 December 1959, Harian Rakjat was banned again for a story about "Njoto's 23 November lecture in the SBKA building", which was published on 24 November 1959. The reason for banning was also not clear, giving rise to protests. Following pressure, Harian Rakjat was finally permitted, and published again on 23 December 1959 .^[4] On 3 February 1961, the newspaper was banned again by in Greater Jakarta. The reason for the ban was the welcome address from PKI chairman D.N. Aidit on the 10th anniversary of Harian Rakjat. In his address, Aidit raised the question of democracy and political freedom. According to the War Authority, this could disrupt political stability in Indonesia.^[5]

After the events of the 30 September Movement in 1965, all dailies published in Jakarta were banned, except the military-owned Angkatan Bersendjata and Berita Yudha. On 3 October 1965, Harian Rakjat finally ceased publication. It was not only disbanded: all the PKI members and activists who supported the newspaper were hunted down, arrested, imprisoned, and even killed. The final words from the editor to its readers were, "Many-many thanks, all the readers!"^[5]