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From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake under the Indian Ocean spawned a tsunami that left huge swaths of death and destruction across South and Southeast Asia.

One of the most severely devastated areas was the province of Aceh in northwestern Indonesia.

Long one of the most isolated places on earth, it had been torn by civil war for years

and was a difficult and dangerous place to be a journalist.

Today, 12 months after a catastrophic natural disaster, Aceh is rebuilding, and so is its press.

Kathleen Riem, South and Southeast Asia Regional Director of Internews, has been visiting Aceh since 1999, and she joins us now from Bangkok.

Kathleen, welcome to On the Media.

Thank you very much.

Describe, please, the general state of affairs in Ache in terms of the

press before the tsunami. Before the tsunami, the printed press and the broadcast outlets were

severely restricted in every possible way, in their coverage, their distribution, and their ability

for reporting news and information

and making that available to the general public.

The environment for the media there was restricted in a manner that led to the media

participating in a degree of self-censorship, mostly driven by fear.

...