NASIONALXPOS.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Journalists are not required to take and pass the Journalist Competency Test (UKW). This was confirmed by Kamsul Hasan, Press Expert of the Press Council, on Friday (20/01/2023), in a discussion with the Central Leadership Council (DPP) of the Indonesian Journalists’ Secretariat (SWI) at the Ngopi Together event.
He made this affirmation, to answer the misunderstandings about UKW that developed among journalists and within government agencies.
A number of government agencies in various regions of the country, both at the Regency/City level and at the Provincial level, issued regulations stating that the government agency in question, only cooperates with journalists who have passed UKW and come from media that have been certified at the Press Council.
“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 Regulation of the Press Council.” explained Kamsul Hasan, Press Expert at the Press Council and Chair of the Journalist Competency Division at the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI).
In this case, UKW refers to Press Council Regulation No. 1 of 2010, which was updated with Press Council Regulation No. 4 of 2017 concerning Journalist Competency Certification.
Currently, there are 30 institutions that have received licenses from the Press Council to carry out the Journalist Competency Test (UKW) in various regions of the country. Even then, not all of them actively carry out journalist competency tests. In fact, according to an estimate by the Press Council, the number of media in Indonesia has reached more than 47 thousand, of which 43 thousand are online media.
If on average each media has 5 journalists, the number of journalists in Indonesia will reach 235 thousand people. In reality, currently, the total number of journalists throughout Indonesia who have passed UKW is only around 23,300 people. This means that not even 10 percent of journalists in Indonesia have passed UKW.
In other words, there are still very many journalists who have not attended and have not graduated from UKW, who carry out journalistic assignments in Indonesia. Once again, UKW is not a requirement for someone to become a journalist in Indonesia.
The question, continued Kamsul, is journalists who have passed UKW a guarantee for the quality of the journalistic products they produce?.
Outspokenly, Kamsul Hasan, who served as Chairman 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 graduated from UKW, but the quality of their journalistic products is low. On the other hand, there are quite a number of journalists who have not joined UKW, but their journalistic products are truly of high quality,” said Kamsul Hasan, Bachelor of Journalism from the Institute of Social Sciences and Science Politics (IISIP) Jakarta, Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws from the Iblam College of Law (STIH), Jakarta.
Kamsul Hasan suspects that the policy of a number of government agencies who refuse to cooperate with journalists who are not yet UKW is solely because they want to limit the number of journalists involved in their activities.
“From my observations, the heads of government institutions who wish to extend their term of office generally do not mind UKW or non-UKW journalists,” said Kamsul Hasan with a meaningful smile.
The discussion about the press with Kamsul Hasan on Friday (20/01/2023) was full of enthusiasm. This is indeed part of the agenda of the Central Leadership Council (DPP) of the Indonesian Journalists’ Secretariat (SWI), in the context of developing the insights of SWI members.
“Discussions like this, will be carried out by SWI on a regular basis, by inviting press figures to the SWI DPP Office. At the same time, SWI is continuing the process, so that in the near future it will become a constituent of the Press Council,” said Herry Budiman as Secretary General of SWI.
Herry Budiman further explained, the SWI DPP Secretariat Office at Jalan Indramayu No.17, Menteng, Central Jakarta, is quite representative as a place for discussions to improve the competence of journalists who have joined SWI.
At Coffee Together, apart from discussing press law with Kamsul Hasan, the participants also received insight development about online media, which was conveyed by Isson Khairul as Chair of the Indonesian Journalists’ Ethics Council (SWI). (red/uchan)
