Government Needs Disaster Communication Protocol

JAKARTA - Political communication expert, Gun Gun Heryanto, revealed that the government must learn a valuable lesson behind the handling of the Sumatra disaster, one of which is the need for disaster communication protocols.

According to him, if you pay attention to the pattern of communication during the Sumatra disaster, it is more from many to many people through social media. This makes a lot of information circulating that is not necessarily credible among the community.

"It should have been a long time ago, the government should have had a disaster communication protocol," said Gun Gun, Sunday, December 21.

He said, in the disaster communication protocol, there will be a narrative, who is the spokesperson who will convey the information or narrative that has been prepared, then what can and cannot be conveyed when giving testimony. In addition, it is also important to pay attention to who the audience of the information to be provided. "This is all related to the governance of public communication, because without it, there will be blunders from those who represent government communication," he added.

Gun Gun emphasized that in the delivery of disaster information, in addition to news value, there must also be Communication of Privacy Management (CPM) to determine what can or cannot be opened to the public. In addition, the disaster communication protocol will also ensure the speed and accuracy in opening important data.

"It's not fast, for example, the electricity will light up 97 percent, but there is no accuracy. Or for example, if you want to increase assistance in districts and provinces, you must also support consistency in data. The spokesperson must verify what the president agrees with the readiness of consistency in the field, then there is a good intention of the government to convey it with measurable data, he must not be asbun," he explained.