T

he inaugural Indonesian Chief Editors Summit in Bali has committed to financing future education and capacity building programs for media workers and aspirant journalists nationwide.

'This event costs around Rp 5 billion [US$506,000]. I estimate that we have surplus funding from the sponsorship,' chairman of the Indonesia Chief Editors Forum, also chief editor of Tempo magazine, Wahyu Muryadi told Bali Daily on Thursday.

In his opening remarks, Wahyu expressed surprise at the overflowing sponsorship support from both private and state-owned companies.

The Indonesia Chief Editors Forum plans several follow-up activities after the summit, including the campus media empowerment program 'Chief Editor Goes to Campus', scholarships for 5,000 local journalists' children, capacity-building for local journalists through the endorsement of the Press Council's competence certification initiative, as well as infrastructure assistance to improve education in remote areas nationwide.

Wahyu acknowledged that around Rp 8 billion had been collected for the event in sponsorship. This included platinum sponsorship from 11 state-owned and private companies, 14 premium sponsors and 10 silver sponsors.

The platinum sponsors were Pertamina, BRI, Garuda Indonesia, PT Kereta Api, Bank Mayapada, Medco Energi, OSO Group, Artha Graha Peduli, Indosiar, Liputan6.com and SCTV.

Wahyu assured that the forum obtained the financial support independently. 'We do not accept state funds [APBN], regional funds [APBD] or funding from presidential candidates and regional election candidates.'

In addition to featuring a discussion on the role of mass media in boosting the economy and political transformation, the two-day summit discussed macroeconomics, financial and industrial systems, energy security, food security, infrastructure and media convergence.

'But most of all, this event is a platform to gather the nation's mass media, initiated by us and for us, without any cooption or engineering by the government. Hopefully, we can also build a better understanding with media owners,' said Wahyu.

The summit is to produce the Nusa Dua morale commitment on the final day on Friday.