Gordon Bishop
Gordon Bishop (1956 - July 21, 2007) is the founder of Joyo Indonesia News, an email-based wire of english speaking Indonesian news.
Early Life
Bishop was born in downtown New York City in an upper middle class Jewish family. His original last name was Dubjinsky [1]. Bishop is a product of baby boomer generation, and he had been an activist in his early life, supporting underground movements.
In the late 1960s Bishop began traveling around the world and ended up in Indonesia, and he fell in love with the land instantly. In Yogyakarta he met his wife-to-be, Nanies Siti Ahadiah Suryodiprodjo, a Javanese lady with royal blood, who was doing Javanese dance for Indonesian independence day. They got married, have one child, Naomi, and the family ended up living in Central Java.
In 1993 traffic accident killed Bishop's wife and left Bishop with series of medical problems that forced him to return to New York City for medical treatment. He was then blacklisted by Indonesian government and unable to return to Indonesia [1].
Joyo Indonesia News
In summer 1996, Bishop obtained a PC and began compiling news on Indonesia and distributed it to a group of close friends, including Indonesian. At that time, Indonesian press was still restricted, and the news distributed by Gordon helped bring outside perspective to the Indonesian readers. As a consequence, the email distribution grew organically and became Joyo Indonesia News. Gordon adopted an alias of Joyo, derived from Joyoboyo, a Javanese poet who has prophecied the future of Indonesia. This newswire and Apakabar, was part of internet activism in Indonesia that has contributed civil activism and student movement that toppled down of Suharto in 1998.
The email news has been distributed daily without absence. By 2001, Joyo Indonesia News has distributed free of charge more than 80,000 news articles to its hundreds of subscriber. Bishop worked from his apartment despite having crippling medical conditions such as blindness, difficulty to walk, and cancer. Later, several people helped him in the distribution of the news articles.
In 2005, Bishop won an esteemed Suardi Tasrif Award, an award for the protection of freedom of opinion and civil rights, from the Indonesian Aliansi Jurnalis Independen.
In 2007, Bishop passed away succumbing to cancer that has eroded his body for many years.