''Bintang Timur'' (

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

: ''"Star of the East"''), also spelled Bintang Timoer before 1947, was a popular daily newspaper published in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

History

The newspaper was launched in September 1926 by

Parada Harahap Parada Harahap (born 1899 in Sipirok, Dutch East Indies, died 1959 in Jakarta) was an important journalist and writer from the late colonial period and early independence era in Indonesia. In the 1930s, he was called the "king of the Java press". H ...

, then editor of

Bintang Hindia Bintang may refer to: * Bintang Beer, a brand of beer from Indonesia * Bintang (TV channel) Bintang (means Star in English) is the 24-hour Malay language channel which broadcasts Indonesian programmes. This channel was formerly called Astro A ...

. Before its first issue, the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...

newspaper

Algemeen Handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indië Algemeen handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indië (Dutch language, Dutch: General trade newspaper for the Dutch East Indies) was a Dutch language newspaper, published from 1924 to 1942 in Semarang, Dutch East Indies. History 1924-1926: Founding und ...

was already recommending it to "the natives" due to Harahap's reputation for hard work and dedication to good journalism. The editorial lineup in the first year, aside from Harahap, were G. Soetadipradja, Kadar, Hatnid and Abdullah Badjrei, with assistant editing by

Saadah Alim Saadah Alim (1897–1968) was a writer, playwright, translator, journalist and educator in the Dutch East Indies and in Indonesia after independence. She was one of only a handful of Indonesian women authors to be published during the colonial ...

. The paper noted that ''Bintang Timoer'' would be independent of any religious or political faction, and that it had a more modern layout than most

Malay language Malay ( , ; , Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language spoken primarily by Malays (ethnic group), Malays in several islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula on the mainland Asia. The lang ...

papers, with illustrations and more space given to content. Since the paper was not involving itself in politics, it even promised that while "the importance of Indonesia will be kept in mind, since no party interests are served, Indonesia will be understood as a 'geographical concept' not in the meaning of a 'political concept'." ''Bintang Timur'' apparently resumed publication in early 1953 after being unable to publish during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution (), also known as the Indonesian War of Independence (, ), was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during A ...

. Under its new guise in independent

once again became president-director and head editor, and promised that the paper would have a "national progressive" line and to present the news in a responsible and neutral manner. In its later years it was the organ of the Indonesia Party (Partindo). S. Tahsin served as the editor-in-chief of ''Bintang Timur'', later followed by Tom Anwar. As of the late 1950s it was estimated to have a circulation of 25,000.

References

{{reflist Defunct newspapers published in Indonesia 1926 establishments in the Dutch East Indies