Anne Hayes, former editor of The Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard has just returned from a five-week assignment in Java where she was helping to set up a new newspaper, Java Weekly.

She went out as a volunteer to Java’s second city, Surabaya, with British Executive Service Overseas, a development agency that offers the professional expertise of volunteers as advisers to organisations in less developed communities worldwide.

Anne found what the paper really needed was an injection of newspaper expertise and a better standard of English which could only be supplied by a native speaker, and following her advice the paper is now looking for an expatriate with newspaper skills.

The new weekly is a rarity in Indonesia, where most papers are daily and sold by subscription, and it should be up and running this autumn.

While there she also visited The Indonesian Daily News, an English language publication, which needed help with English and staff training.

English language newspapers are considered important after the country’s recent switch to a democratic system – and they are encouraged by all foreign missions in Indonesia.