The government is open to accepting proposals for regulations on safety at work for journalists

Jakarta (MidLand) – The government is open to accepting proposals to establish regulations from press industry players to ensure the workplace safety of media workers and journalists.

Director of Media Management, Directorate of Public Information and Communication, Ministry of Communications and Informatics (Kemenkominfo), Nursodik Gunarjo, said that, if necessary, the formation of norms can be proposed by the general public.

“Not just journalists, everyone can suggest if there is a need to regulate something that is important to the lives of many people. The mechanism is like this, it can be proposed through a group, or for example an initiative presented through the Presidential Decree can be subjected to the DPR. Depending on the urgency,” Nursodik told MidLand in Jakarta on Thursday.

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Nursodik also said that requests for the establishment of regulations on workplace safety of journalists should be directed to the relevant institutions for relevant discussions.

Since it concerns workplace safety, according to him, journalists or groups representing journalists can submit regulations to the Ministry of Labor.

Requests for the adoption of these rules can also be submitted by the independent institution, the Press Council, which is entrusted with the protection of freedom of the press and the improvement of the quality of life of journalists by law number 40 of 1999 on the press .

Nursodik said the proposal to establish rules to improve the quality of life of journalists is not impossible.

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Something similar was done, according to him, when the print industry asked the government to regulate cooperation between digital platforms and the mass media.

This is demonstrated by the implementation of the Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia (Perpres) Number 32 of 2024 regarding the responsibility of digital platform companies to support quality journalism.

“Like yesterday he was tied up publisher’s rights This was proposed by friends in the media via PWI. “In fact, a presidential decree can be made so that other similar things are also not closed to regulation,” she said.

However, he reminded journalists or groups representing them to pay attention to the provisions that apply to proposed rulemakings.

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He said that the mechanism for collecting initiators, initiators and related institutions must be adapted to the intended content so that later the proposal can be elaborated or implemented more easily.

As regards the legislation on workplace safety for journalists, to date there is no legislation governing this matter.

Based on the 2023 Journalist Safety Index released by the Safe Journalism program, it was found that the 2023 Journalist Safety Index had a score of 59.8 out of 100 or in the “fairly safe” category.

There are three pillars measured in this report, namely the individual pillar with the lowest score of 36.08, followed by the state and regulatory pillar with a score of 64.36, and the pillar stakeholders average with a score of 74.36.

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Reporter: Livia Kristianti
Publisher: Siti Zulaikha
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