Press Council Appreciation Fellowship Journalism Behavior Change

Chairman of the Press Council M Nuh (PHOTO VIA ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Behavioral Change Journalism Fellowship Program (FJPP) is resumed. A total of 3,030 journalists from all over Indonesia will participate in this program for 8 months until December 2021.

The opening of FJPP period 2 was conducted virtually by Kasatgas Handling COVID-19 Doni Monardo and Chairman of the Press Council Mohammad Nuh, Monday, May 10.

As fellow journalists, participants will regularly make news that campaigns for the importance of behavior changes conducive to preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The FJPP program is a collaboration between the Task Force on Handling COVID-19 and the Press Council. The previous FJPP also took place in the period October-December 2020.

The Press Council highly appreciates the implementation of FJPP. The press's critical attitude towards how the government is handling the COVID-19 pandemic remains relevant, even more relevant.

However, this does not prevent the press from collaborating with the government to realize a higher value, namely the vision of humanity to help save people from the COVID-19 pandemic through means of communication and mass information. FJPP is a rare historic momentum. The government is committed to helping journalists facing an economic crisis due to the CPVID-19 pandemic.

The press instead helps the government mainstream behavior change in society to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, both parties are aware the FJPP is not intended to reduce the press's critical attitude towards the government. High appreciation is given to the government, especially the Task Force on Handling COVID-19.

FJPP participants journalists will continuously preach the COVID-19 pandemic by emphasizing the importance of implementing health protocols as a new culture in society: using masks properly, washing hands, maintaining distance, maintaining adequate nutrition intake and exercising to support the prevention of the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

For these contributions, the participants will get monthly remuneration allocated from the State Budget. The Press Council guarantees this remuneration does not preclude the press from being critical of the government. FJPP first period october-December 2020 showed the participants still remain critical of other elements of government that are negligent in implementing health protocols. Journalists can still be critical, even expected to remain critical in preaching health protocol issues and behavior changes.

FJPP is part of the economic incentives that the state provides to the media sector. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, elements of media companies associations and journalists associations applied several economic incentive options to the government. The Press Council facilitated that process.

For individual journalists, these incentives are realized in the FJPP program. Economic incentives for journalists are not realized in the form of direct cash assistance, but rather programmatically in journalistic writing fellowships. It's more educational and professional.

The FJPP program involved 26 senior journalists from various media backgrounds to become editors. They are tasked with examining and assessing the feasibility of the participants' works by departing from the implementation of the Journalistic Code of Ethics and conformity with the theme of behavior change and the implementation of health protocols.