Your Stories

5 Minute read

Sanchy was used to hearing the protests outside her office window. The group had been gathering two to three times a week ever since she’d started her internship at the Indonesian regional State Assembly earlier that summer.

But Sanchy didn’t resent the group, made up of mostly university students disillusioned by government corruption. On the contrary, she wished she could join them. Just a few months prior, the 19-year-old had been a regular demonstrator with dreams of becoming a professional journalist. But ever since starting her internship, protesting wasn’t an option. At least, not with chants and signs. Writing, however, was a different story.

Ever since she was little, Sanchy had always wanted to be a journalist. She even remembers the exact moment she knew it was her calling: She was lying on the floor, perched in front of her TV with her family, when a news bulletin flashed across the screen, interrupting their nightly soap opera with an update about a government scandal. Something about the reporter’s calm, collected coverage instantly put Sanchy at ease. She felt a spark of understanding and appreciation for the power of a free, honest press. When she began college, there was no question that she would major in journalism.

Back in her government office, Sanchy made a decision: If she couldn’t join the protests herself, that she would cover them instead—with her Xiaomi Redmi Android (Go edition) phone and notepad in hand. While reporting the story, she quickly realized that it would be impossible to write down every detail she needed to capture by hand, and switched on her phone’s recording app, following the protestors as they entered the building to make their case in the assembly hall. Not wanting to miss a second of the proceedings, she propped up her phone, still recording, on the hall’s speakers.

“During my internship at the local Parliament, I used Google Go to search for reference material for my own writing. I study how the articles are written so that I can make mine as powerful as possible.”

When the hearing ended, she collected her phone and slipped back into her office to listen to what she’d recorded. Then, she started writing, referencing other political articles she’d found using Google Go to fact-check. Just to be safe, she saved the recording using the Files by Google app, which backs up files to the cloud to make sure she didn’t run out of storage on her phone.

When she finished her draft, Sanchy couldn’t help but feel nervous about sharing it with her boss. After all, she’d just written a story that lauded protesters and questioned local members of parliament. This wasn’t the type of article that a young woman in Indonesia usually wrote, not to mention one who was not yet even a journalism graduate. But Sanchy realized she had no choice: It was her duty as a journalist to report the facts. So she hit send.

Soon, she heard her boss approaching her desk. “Sanchy, is all of this true?” he asked her.

Sanchy was ready for this. She pointed to her phone. “I recorded it!” she replied. She had proof of everything she’d written.

“When I become a journalist, I’ll make sure I only deliver news that’s true and beneficial to the people. When people are more informed, they become more open-minded, more knowledgeable, more progressive.”

Sanchy’s first article about the protestors was soon published on the State Assembly’s official website. When Sanchy saw it, she felt like she was dreaming. For years, “real” journalists had just been faces she saw on TV or inked names in her newspaper. Seeing her first byline felt like a real step towards becoming the type of journalist she’d always admired—one who didn’t shy away from controversy and who always spoke truth to power.