'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.