Press academy starts reporting course

By R. Fadjri

YOGYAKARTA (JP): A learning center imparting journalistic skills stands tall in the center of Umbulmartani village, located between Yogyakarta and the tourist area Kaliurang.

The LP3Y campus, located at the Yogyakarta Institute of Research and Publishing Education, was launched on Dec. 19, 1996.

In anticipation of the year 2001, LP3Y Director Ashadi Siregar and three of his associates -- Daniel Dhakidae, Masmimar Mangiang, and Hotman Siahaan -- established the LP3Y campus to support all the institute's activities.

LP3Y was established in 1977 by a number of student activists, including Ashadi Siregar, Hotman Siahaan, Amir Efendi Siregar and Masmimar Mangiang.

Since LP3Y is a private institute which is trying hard to realize and develop a free press as well as democracy among the people, it plays a unique role in the area of press education in Indonesia. These ideals were formulated through adopting the standards of journalism, democracy and human rights.

"Professional and liberated journalism could become a factor in the development of democratic life," said Ashadi.

On the one hand, LP3Y is running pragmatic activities, like practical instruction of journalism (mass communication). On the other hand, however, it is also developing democratic values through education about the press and human rights in society.

According to Ashadi, it is impossible to separate journalism from a free press as demanded by the public, who like to see tangible facts published by the press.

LP3Y teaches standard journalism to budding reporters. These courses were started in 1982.The institute has designed a course which does not fall into the staioard category as can be found in formal education. This standard often proves to be a hindrance, materializing in the form of passive attitudes among those taking such a course. This could have been caused by a one-way teacher- student interaction which does not encourage criticism.

Realizing this, LP3Y has made efforts to foster active two-way interaction. An educative program has been designed using manuals, components and a timetable. The participants are divided into groups of five or six people and are flanked by assistants.

LP3Y started its journalism program with very simple means. The institute gave lessons in an old garage measuring six meters by nine meters. Equipment consisted of old typewriters complete with benches and a long working table.

Students worked from dawn to dusk to meet their publication's established deadline. The institute succeeded in running four curricular programs in the garage. Later, LP3Y moved into larger quarters, although it still had to rent the new place. The long benches are gone now and have been replaced with folding chairs, computers and air-conditioned rooms.

But nothing has changed in terms of the students' workload. The students still have to go through the work of reporting, comprising news coverage, writing, interviewing, designing and running a publication.

Their home paper appears every Saturday. Before the days of computers, articles were typed out and then copied.

Today, LP3Y is in its ninth educational program, with 20 students enrolled. The course takes six months. At least 17 publishing firms have benefited from the academy's curriculum.

Aside from providing a course in journalism for would-be reporters, the academy also provides two-month courses for seasoned journalists designed to elevate them to an editor level.

These exercises consist of media management for public relations personnel, exercises in cooperation with public relations employees, lessons on how to write about AIDS and fields of specialization.

At the new campus, LP3Y has introduced a course on cultural reporting, which includes journalistic values in the social and cultural context. It is an important concept that should pit pragmatic journalistic acumen against public support.

"A professional journalist would be nobody if he found himself in a crowd that did not appreciate journalism," commented Ashadi.

To activate the concept, the new center is running several activities for journalism students whose main job is to hone the public's awareness of the media. Some of the activities consist of putting feelers out in the media, engaging the public, and creating appreciation for journalism through cultural publications.

Hopefully, the struggle in Indonesian towards a free press has begun within a public institution. When people have made the press a part of their lives, the media will gain the public's full support in becoming a free press in the real sense.