Currently, the press industry is struggling to ensure qualified journalism in the face of various demands, such as the need for adapting to information technology advancements, Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny G Plate has said.
“Industrialization and commercialization that have hit the press hard and the demand to adapt to the accelerated information technology and communication have driven it to experience an awkwardness,” Plate remarked during a hybrid discussion ahead of the National Press Day commemoration on February 9, 2022.
New media development, over-the-top e-commerce growth, social media phenomena such as clickbait, hoaxes, and infodemics (excessive and rapidly spreading COVID-19 information that exacerbates pandemic-related anxiety) are among the challenges keeping the press from ensuring qualified news, according to the minister.
Hence, a healthy and qualified press climate is important for the advancement of both the press and people, he said.
“A healthy press will have an impact on the news, comprising information based on actual and factual data, and surely can be accounted for, published for the public,” Plate said in a statement released here on Tuesday.
Moreover, press freedom restrictions will also be counterproductive to national development, he stressed.
“Instead of establishing the stability, such a situation will foster authoritarianism that drives chaos, disharmony, and disintegration,” he said.
The 2021 Reporters without Borders report ranked Indonesia 113 of 180 countries in terms of press freedom, he noted.
The rank, according to the minister, improved significantly from 139 in 2013.
Nationally, Indonesia’s press independence index reached 76.02 in 2021, or up 0.75 points from 75.27 in 2020, he said.
Source: Antara News