Chairman Of JMSI Becomes 'Influential Media' Version Of MAT 2025

Teguh Santosa was named "Influential Media Figure" at The 5th MAW Talk Awards (MTA) . (IST)

YOGYAKARTA Chairman of the Indonesian Cyber Media Network (JMSI) Teguh Santosa has been named the "Influential Media Figure" at The 5th MAW Talk Awards (MTA) which was announced at the Grand Diamond Hotel, Yogyakarta, Thursday, August 28, 2025.

The founder of the RMOL Political News Agency, who is also an academic, is considered to have a strong commitment to safeguarding information sovereignty through active public participation.

Teguh Santosa co-founded JMSI in February 2020 and was trusted to be the first general chairman of the press company organization. In a relatively short time, Teguh succeeded in bringing JMSI to be listed as a member of the Press Council. At the 2nd JMSI National Conference which took place at the end of June 2025, Teguh again won the trust of leading JMSI for the second term.

Teguh was also the Head of Foreign Affairs of the Central Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) for the 2013-2018 period, Vice President of the ASEAN Confederation of Journalists (2017-2018), and a member of the Central PWI Honorary Council (2018).

Teguh has written a number of books, namely Commission I, On the banks of Amu Darya, Bad peace, Good War, Buldozer from Palestine, On the banks of the river of Ethnicity, and Korean Reunification: Game Theory.

Apart from Teguh, member of the Press Council Dahlan Dahi was also selected as the "Influential Media Tokoh" version of the MAW Talk for this year.

"I dedicate this award to all the friends who raised the Indonesian Cyber Media Network (JMSI)," said Teguh when giving a short speech after receiving the 2025 MAW Talk Awards certificate.

On that occasion, Teguh also admitted that he was worried about facing an era of disruption that had changed many things due to overlapping information.

He also highlighted two phenomena that he thought were contradictory. The first is about the literacy level of Indonesians, which according to UNESCO is very low. Second, Indonesia is one of the countries that has so many gadgets.

"You can imagine, digital technology interventions like that are actually welcomed by human resources with a very low literacy level," said Teguh again.

Founder and Chairman of MAW Talk, Asmono Wikan, when announcing the winners said, there are six main indicators in the assessment, namely first, the policy innovation of leaders in their respective institutions/organizations. Second, commitment to Indonesian values, such as diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Third, do not have a negative track record / free from legal problems over the past year. Fourth, have an impact (work) contribution to the Indonesian people. Fifth, have noble values "Ngayogyakarta" namely intellectualism, nurturing, tolerance, and respecting arts and culture.

And finally inspiring or becoming a role model for the community/ecosystem, which means encouraging changes to both the economy and social.

The assessment was carried out by the jury consisting of Prof. Dr Masduki (Indonesian Islamic University), Dr Rahayu (Ejah Mada University), Prof. Dr. Adhianty Nurjanah (Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University), Dr. Christina Rochayanti (UPN Veteran Yogyakarta), and Dr. Lukas Ispandriarno (Athma Jaya University Yogyakarta).

The jury assessed as many as 500 names of figures and institutions during the three-month judging before finally deciding the winner for each category on July 19, 2025.

In addition to "Influential Media Figures", another category in MTA 2025 is "Influential PR Figures", "Influential PR Institutions", "Influential Media Institutions", "Influential Public Figures", "Influential Public Institutions", "Influential Business Figures", "Influential Business Institutions", and "Influential Social Figures".