The radio news agency actively encourages listener participation in a country where, for decades, they were discouraged from engagement in public life. News reports or talk show debates on KBR68H have resulted in numerous instances where local or national government action has been prompted and, by being able to demonstrate concrete examples of success, KBR68H encourages listeners all over the country to demand more from their leaders and to take action when they are found wanting. The popularity of their phone-in programs – with dozens and sometimes hundreds of text messages and phone calls being received from all over the country during a single program – attests to the great enthusiasm with which listeners respond to this opportunity to have their say. Programs broadcast nationwide include weekly interactive talk shows on legal reform and human rights, health, religious tolerance, environment and economics, and others address topics such as religion and tolerance and education. A toll free phone number and text messaging facility encourages participation in all of these programs by listeners regardless of their economic, social or political status and a platform from which to state their views. KBR68H also produces programs to meet the special information needs. This includes a daily news program, Kabar Aceh (Aceh News), broadcast by local radio stations across Aceh, and Kabar Tanah Papua (Papua news), which provides listeners in Papua and Papua with news about the two provinces. KBR68H is a pioneer in the production of in-depth and investigative radio programs, a genre otherwise largely undeveloped in Indonesia. Its Indonesian language SAGA radio program regularly takes listeners on an audio journey around the country as it addresses a wide range of topics largely untouched by other Indonesian media. SAGA reports have won numerous Indonesian awards for the high quality of their journalism. Since 2003, KBR68H has produced a weekly hour-long regional current affairs program,
Asia Calling, the only one of its kind on Indonesian radio. Asia Calling covers a wide range of stories that highlight the political, economic, social and cultural diversity of the region. With thirty correspondents scattered across Asia, Asia Calling goes behind the headlines to show how major developments are affecting people's lives, providing nuanced and carefully balanced insights into stories that are often largely missed by other media. Produced in English, as of June 2013, Asia Calling is translated into 10 Asian languages and broadcast by 321 radio stations throughout the region. Asia Calling features have won a number of domestic awards and in 2009, Asia Calling correspondent Elise Potaka was co-winner of the Asia Pacific Environmental Journalism Award for her series called, "The Murky World of Coal Mining in China". As part of its public service mission, KBR68H rebuilt dozens of radio stations destroyed in Aceh in the December 2004 tsunami, as well as stations affected by the
2006 Yogyakarta earthquake and the 2009 earthquake in West Sumatera. KBR68H has also pioneered a radio station building program in remote areas of Eastern Indonesia, the least developed part of the country, in cooperation with an Indonesian non-profit organization,
PPMN, in order to prevent people living in these locations from being cut off from the development process and instead to enable them to play an active part in it. Most recently, stations have been established in the Yahukimo and Paniai regencies in the Central Highlands of Papua, and in Central Sumba on the island of Sumba, and May saw the launch of the latest station to be built, in Sarmi, Papua. For a modest cost these stations have a transformative effect on local communities, enabling them to have their voices heard, often for the first time, on political, social and economic issues, as well as providing a unique vehicle for cultural expression. They also enable the effective engagement of these communities with local government and, in so doing, increase government accountability and transparency in parts of the country that have historically lacked this. == Environmental Issues ==