[1] A newspaper of the same name was published in Batavia from 1896 to 1900 (De Indische Courant II);[1] this paper, one of whose contributors was Dutch author and critic of the colonial system Multatuli,[2] was continued as the Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië.
[1] In 1921 the Suikerbond, a conservative trade union representing the interests of "European workers in the sugar industry",[4] founded De Indische Courant, published first in Surabaya, East-Java, and then also from Weltevreden, West-Java.
[5] When the government imposed severe restriction on the freedom of the press (1927–1931) citing the threat of Communist uprisings, such as the one in 1926, De Indische Courant was one of the measure's most vocal opponents.
[6] Like other Dutch newspapers in the colonies, its function was to amuse rather than opine, and its content consisted for a large part of gossip, rumor, and sensationalist news items (sometimes bordering on libel).
[7] While the paper leaned social-democratic in the 1920s, under pressure from union members editor in chief Koch was replaced by Willem Belonje and became much more conservative.