TIFA Foundation, Indonesian Media Development Association, and Human Rights Working Group Indonesia joined forces to promote the safety of journalists in Indonesia, through the Safe Journalism program, which aims to create a safe and enabling ecosystem for journalists to promote press freedom and ensure independent media.
Supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Jakarta, Safe Journalism was officially launched through a public webinar "Freedom of Expression, Protection and Safety of Journalists in Indonesia" on April 11, 2022. The discussion brought together the views of various experts including Agung Dharmajaya from the Indonesian Press Council, Herlambang Perdana Wiratraman from the Faculty of Law at Gadjah Mada University, Nenden Sekar Arum from SAFENET and the Indonesian Journalist Safety Committee, and Eni Mulia from the Indonesian Media Development Association. Moderated by Daniel Awigra from Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) Indonesia, the four speakers exchanged views on the current state of freedom of expression, safety of women journalists and gender-based violence experienced by journalists, mechanisms for handling cases of assault against journalists and the introduction of the Safe Journalism Program.
In the opening message of the webinar for the public, Executive Director of TIFA Foundation, Shita Laksmi pointed out that journalists need freedom and security for a healthy ecosystem and enabling media to thrive in Indonesia. Therefore, through the Safe Journalism program, the three organizations are committed to achieving this goal through various activities and interventions under the program including, but not limited to, the establishment of an online help desk for journalists, law enforcement training on journalist safety and training for citizen journalists, university press, and vloggers on digital safety aspects.
Then in his opening remarks, Ambassador Lambert Grijns touched on the issue of violence against journalists both in the Netherlands and globally over the past few years. Next year, the Netherlands will be the co-chair of the media freedom coalition formed in 2019, therefore supporting press freedom in the world, including in Indonesia. He also noted the importance of strengthening the role and collaboration between national institutions with the mandate to promote and guarantee the safety of journalists to ensure the quality of press freedom in Indonesia as an important cornerstone of democracy in Indonesia.
Mr. Agung Dharmajaya from the Indonesian Press Council in his session talked about the efforts led by the Press Council to strengthen the reporting and management of cases of attacks on journalists through cooperation with national institutions including the Indonesian National Police and other Press Councils in the Southeast Asia Region. Council in the Southeast Asia Region. Meanwhile, Nenden Arum highlighted the alarming attacks on gender-based violence experienced by female journalists. Although both genders are affected by the risk of gender-based violence, women journalists in Indonesia have experienced tremendous attacks both offline and online when performing their journalistic duties both in the form of sexual harassment through digital trolling as also noted by SAFENET. As such, women journalists experience double vulnerability, profession-wise and gender-wise.
Mr. Herlambang Wiratraman's reflection on the situation of press freedom in Indonesia highlighted the fact that Indonesia is currently experiencing a shrinking civic space in Indonesia as evidenced by the increasingly limited access to information which is hampering the development of democracy in Indonesia. Mr. Herlambang also talked about some of the "new" press freedom threats in recent years as well as opportunities for policies at the national level - such as Komnas HAM's Standard Norms and Regulations No. 5 on SNP on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression - and also at the international level such as the UN Human Rights Council resolution on October 6, 2020 on the Safety of Journalists.
Eni Mulia from PPMN as the last resource person generally conveyed the objectives, outputs, and activities of the Safe Journalism program consisting of multi-stakeholder meetings, reporting and monitoring, training, and services. Eni who also represented the consortium ended with a request for support, advice and cooperation with various stakeholders. The public discussion was attended by more than 60 national participants from representatives of civil society organizations, journalist associations, universities and media.
ENGLISH VERSION
Safe Journalism: Making Safety of Journalists Priority for All
TIFA Foundation, The Indonesian Association for Media Development, and Human Rights Working Group Indonesia join forces to promote the safety of journalists in Indonesia, through the Jurnalisme Aman program, aimed at creating a safe and enabling ecosystem for journalists to promote press freedom and ensure independent media.
Supported by the Netherlands Embassy in Jakarta, Safe Journalism was officially launched through a public webinar "Freedom of Expression, Protection and Safety of Journalists in Indonesia" on April 11, 2022. The discussion brought together views from various experts including Agung Dharmajaya from the Indonesian Press Council, Herlambang Perdana Wiratraman from Faculty of Law University of Gadjah Mada, Nenden Sekar Arum from SAFENET and Indonesian Safety Committee on Journalists, and Eni Mulia from the Indonesian Association for Media Development. Moderated by Daniel Awigra from the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) Indonesia, the four speakers exchanged views on the current state of freedom of expression, the safety of women journalists and gender-based violence experienced by journalists, mechanisms of case management on attacks against journalists as well as the introduction of the Safe Journalism Program.
In her opening message to the public webinar, the Executive Director of TIFA Foundation, Shita Laksmi raised that journalists need freedom and safety for a healthy and enabling ecosystem for media to flourish in Indonesia. Therefore, through the Jurnalisme Aman program, the three organizations are committed to achieving this goal through different activities and interventions under the program including, but not limited to the establishment of an online help desk for journalists, training for the law enforcement on safety of journalists and training for citizen journalists, university press and vloggers on the digital safety aspect.
Then in his opening remarks, H.E. Ambassador Lambert Grijns mentioned the problem of violence against journalists both in the Netherlands and globally during the last few years. Next year, the Netherlands will become the co-chair of the media freedom coalition that was established in 2019, therefore it supports press freedom in the world, including in Indonesia. He also noted the crucial role of strengthening the roles and collaborations between national institutions with the mandate of promoting and ensuring the safety of journalists to make sure the quality of press freedom in Indonesia as an important foundation of democracy in Indonesia.
Mr. Agung Dharmajaya from the Indonesian Press Council noted in his session on the efforts led by the Press Council to strengthen the reporting and management of cases of attacks against journalists through the establishment of cooperation with national agencies including the Indonesian National Police as well as other Press Councils in the Southeast Asian Region. Meanwhile, Ms. Nenden Arum highlighted the alarming attacks on gender-based violence experienced by female journalists. Although both genders are affected by the risk of gender-based violence, female journalists in Indonesia have experienced overwhelming attacks both offline and online when performing their journalistic duties from sexual harassment through digital trolling as also noted by SAFENET. So female journalists experience double vulnerability both in terms of profession and in terms of gender.
The reflection of the press freedom situation in Indonesia from Mr. Herlambang Wiratraman highlighted the fact that Indonesia is currently experiencing a shrinking civic space in Indonesia as seen through increasing restrictions to access to information which prevents democracy from flourishing in Indonesia. Herlambang also spoke about several "new" threats to press freedom in recent years as well as opportunities for policies at the national level - such as Standard Norms and Regulation No. 5 Komnas HAM on the SNP on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression - and also at the international level such as the resolution of the UN Human Rights Council on October 6, 2020 on the Security of Journalists.
Eni Mulia from PPMN as the last resource person in general conveyed the objectives, outputs, and activities of the Safe Journalism program consisting of multi-stakeholder meetings, reporting and monitoring, training, and services. Eni, who also represented the consortium, ended with a request for support, advice and collaboration with various stakeholders. The public discussion was attended by more than 60 participants nationally from the representatives of civil society organizations, journalists associations, universities and the media.