It was surprising that the statement from the chairman of the Press Council said that the chairman of the Press Council.

JAKARTA, POSINTERNASIONAL.COM

It was surprising that the statement from the chairman of the Press Council said that the chairman of the Press Council, Ninik Rahayu, said that Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning the Press at the time of its birth did not recognize registration for press companies, Sunday (09/04).

“Everyone can set up a press company and carry out journalistic duties without having to register with any institution, including the Press Council,” said Ninik in his official statement, Thursday (04/04/24)

Every press company, he continued, as long as it meets the requirements for being an Indonesian legal entity and carries out journalistic duties regularly, can be called a press company even though it has not been registered with the Press Council.

This is regulated in Article 9 paragraph (2) of the Press Law and the Journalism Code of Ethics. Meanwhile, in Article 15 paragraph 2 (letter g) of the Press Law, the task of the Press Council is to register press companies.

Likewise, the Journalist Competency Test (UKW) is not a requirement for someone to become a journalist in Indonesia.

UKW is not an order or mandate from the Basic Press Law. “UKW is a Press Council Regulation,” explained Kamsul Hasan, Press Expert for the Press Council and Head of the Journalist Competency Division at the Central Association of Indonesian Journalists (PWI).

In other words, there are still many journalists who have not taken part and have not passed UKW, who carry out journalistic tasks in Indonesia.

Once again UKW is not a requirement for someone to become a journalist in Indonesia.

The question, continued Kamsul, is whether journalists who have passed UKW are a guarantee for the quality of the journalistic products they produce?

Frankly, Kamsul Hasan, who served as Chair of PWI Jaya for two terms, 2004-2009 and 2009-2014, stated that passing UKW is not a guarantee.

“There are still many journalists who have passed UKW, but the quality of their journalistic products is low. “On the other hand, there are quite a lot of journalists who have not joined UKW, but their journalistic products are really high quality,” said Kamsul Hasan.

Bachelor of Journalism Science from the Institute of Social and Political Sciences (IISIP) Jakarta, Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws from the College of Law ( STIH) Jakarta.

Kamsul Hasan suspects that the policy of a number of government institutions which refuse to collaborate with journalists who are not UKW, is simply because they want to limit the number of journalists involved in their activities.

“From my observation, leaders of government institutions who want to extend their term of office generally do not have a problem with UKW or non-UKW journalists,” said Kamsul Hasan with a meaningful smile.

(WASHITON / POSINTER)

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