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New Press Council members to focus on media worker welfare
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A new set of Press Council members – headed by prominent Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra – took up their positions on Wednesday for three-year terms with a focus on improving the welfare of the country’s media workers. (Pixabay/File)
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new set of Press Council members – headed by prominent Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra – took up their positions on Wednesday for three-year terms with a focus on improving the welfare of the country’s media workers.
Azyumardi, who is also a professor at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN Jakarta), took over as head of the council from former education minister Mohammad Nuh. The council’s previous law and legislation commission head, M. Agung Dharmajaya, was made the deputy head of the body.
“The new management of the Press Council will continue the positive things, the positive foundations, that have been laid by the previous Press Council management,” said Azyumardi at his inauguration in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, as quoted by Kompas.
Azyumardi, who worked as a reporter in the early 1980s, said the council would be committed to “improving the quality of Indonesian journalism” by improving the welfare of the country’s journalists and other stakeholders in the media sector.
This motivation, Azyumardi said, had come in response to a recent series of media layoffs stemming from the economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many press employees, he noted, had been laid off or forced into retirement without receiving any compensation.
“We know the current economic situation is difficult. Despite this, we must still provide better welfare for our journalists,” Azyumardi said, adding that the council would be looking to increase the wages of journalists by bridging the interests of press workers and media companies.
Azyumardi noted that the current council was facing different challenges than its predecessors had, particularly as the 2024 general and regional elections neared.
