'Joyonews' founders wins award

'Joyonews' founders wins award

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The founder of Indonesia's first online news service, Joyonews,
was presented with a press award late Friday by the Alliance of
Independent Journalists (AJI). Gordon "Joyo" Bishop, an American
who set up the service in 1996, was named one of two recipients
of the annual Suardi Tasrif Award, presented to individuals or
institutions considered to have contributed to freedom of speech
or access to information.

Publisher Yusuf Ishak received the award on behalf of Bishop,
who currently resides in New York. AJI president Eddy Suprapto
said the jury was impressed by the fact that he had taken full
advantage of the Internet to provide news on Indonesia at a time
when the New Order still sought to screen information.

"I'm so happy," Yusuf said reading Bishop's letter, "This is
better than the Pulitzer Prize."

Another recipient was the late Andi Muis, a former professor
of Hassanuddin University in Makassar, South Sulawesi, who
earlier chaired the ethics council of the AJI in Makassar.

At the ceremony, held to coincide with the AJI's 11th
anniversary, jury member Didik Supriyanto said it was a relief to
see that no award for journalists who fell victim to violence had
been needed this year.

However a posthumous special award was presented to Acehnese
journalist Muharram M. Nur, who died in the tsunami on Dec. 26.
The award was given to his widow Maisarah, who also lost all
three of her children.

"I beg forgiveness for any wrong that he may have caused
anyone," a tearful Maisarah said in her brief address.