On August 21, 2021, the 1st Indonesia media peace forum “Voice of Press(V.O.P)” was held online in attendance of 14 Indonesian journalists with the theme of ‘The Current Situation of Journalists and the Role of Media in the Indonesia Cities amid the Pandemic”.
The forum included presentations of five journalists from Indonesia’s major cities, Jambi, Jakarta, Banjarmasin, Manado, and Ambon, on the media environment and current situation in each city of Indonesia during the pandemic.
The participants discussed the role of Indonesian journalists in overcoming problems caused by hatred, conflict, misunderstanding, and lack of communication amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Hendry Nursal, Chief Editor of Jambi Daily, commented, “The media also must ensure that people can feel comfortable and safe by consistently providing objective and balanced news and the best information to the local and international community.”
Mr. Sonny Tadjure, Chief Editor of Bunaken media, emphasized, “It is urgent to establish a system and environment where journalists can work based on objective and accurate information.”
“We need journalists to deal with correct information in the pandemic and create peace-keeping news that can bring a positive change in people’s behavior,” the regional manager of HWPL Indonesia said.
“HWPL plans to support for peace-journalism in spreading a culture of positive news to Indonesian civil society by arranging a series of online peace forums and peace education for media.” she added.
The forum was organized by a Korea based non-profit international peace organization, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) associated with UN ECOSOC and UN DGC.
‘Voice of Press(V.O.P)’ is a place of communication and international media network where journalists from all over the world can voluntarily participate and speak out for freedom of media and peace journalism. To date, it has been participated by 207 journalists from 22 countries including Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hongkong, Taiwan, Ukraine, Nigeria etc. since 2018.
Anang Fadhilah
