During the reign of Van Imhoff, the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, in 1744, the first trial of publishing a newspaper through mass media occurred. The newspaper was named Batavische Nouvelles, but it only lasted for two years. 

In 1828, the Javashe Courant was published in Jakarta, and it contained the official news about government, auctions, and some daily news from Europe. The first typewriter in Indonesia was sent by W. Bruining in the same year. It published a newspaper called Het Bataviasche Advertantie, about advertisement and general news.

As the years went by, in 1885, in every land that was ruled by the Dutch, there were 16 newspapers in Dutch and 12 in Malay.

When Japan came to Indonesia, all of the newspapers were taken over gradually by them. Indonesia's news office, Kantor Berita Antara, was taken over and turned into the Yashima news office that was centered in Domei, Japan.

They began to take advantage of these newspapers and published the content of the papers to commend the Japanese government. One of the newspapers that contained news about Japan was Tjahaja or Cahaya.

The first newspaper in Indonesia post-independence that broadcast about Indonesia's proclamation text was Soeara Asia, on August 18, 1945.

As Japan often sabotaged newspapers as a tool for their government propaganda, Indonesia sabotaged the communication, too.

On September 19, 1945, Edi Soeradi, a pers figure who published Berita Indonesia, did propaganda to tell people to come to Rapat Raksasa Ikada. At this conference, people will listen to the speech by Soekarno.

On July 15, 1959, Soekarno released Dekrit Presiden, which contained restrictions on political activity, including mass media.

The rules for getting permission for the newspapers to be published were too strict. Some newspapers, such as Soerabaja Post and Harian Pedoman in Jakarta, were affected by this.

The growth of mass media in this era was increasing, yet the strict rules still applied. Even some banning often happened, with force and sometimes violence.

The reason behind this ban is usually because the news was able to offend the authorities and some people in the society. Some magazines that got banned were Tempo, Detik, Sinar Harapan, Harian Nusantara, and many more.

The mass media and the public found the light of hope after the end of Soeharto's reign on May 21, 1998.

Surat Izin Penerbitan Pers (SIUPP) was canceled during this period, and pers publishing was drastically increased.

The government also implemented Undang-udang No. 40 Tahun 1999 about mass media to give people freedom of expression.