Students warned on national unity
Students warned on national unity
DEPOK, West Java (JP): Minister of Information Harmoko warned students yesterday against printing articles in campus publications which could harm national unity.
Opening a journalistic training program for students from various institutions being held at the University of Indonesia (UI), Harmoko said in a written speech that campus publications should be "accurate", "objective", "display systematic analysis and clear thoughts" and "show psychological maturity".
The speech was read by Subrata, the Director General for Press and Graphics of the Ministry of Information.
About 100 students from various universities are taking part in the week-long training program, which will be addressed by a number of senior journalists, including Herry Komar of the Gatra weekly and Sinansari Ecip of the Republika daily.
Lectures will also be given by several experts on issues related to journalism, including Loebby Loqman, who is an expert on the legal aspects of the press.
Organized by the UI student senate, the course aims to provide students with a real taste of the process of covering events, writing reports and producing a newspaper.
"This will be a real thing," exclaimed one participant. "A lot of things happen every day at UI, and we can report on them."
The students participating in the program have come from cities as far away as Surabaya and Malang, both in East Java.
UI Rector M.K. Tadjuddin was also present yesterday and, accompanied by political expert Juwono Sudarsono, inspected an exhibition of past UI publications, the Warta UI tabloid among them.
Harmoko in his speech said students must observe as strict a standard of conduct as that followed by members of the Indonesian mass media.
"You, too, need a code of ethics," the speech said, pointing in particular to a clause in the Indonesian journalists' code of ethics which states that the press should be responsible and avoid running stories which could be harmful to national unity.
Harmoko said that a campus publication was a sub-system of the university to which it belonged and that, as such, it should adhere to the various regulations applying on the campus.
He told the students to remember that the world was undergoing rapid transformation, "both physically and mentally", which presented society with increasingly complicated challenges.
"The situation is changing very rapidly, and the impact is felt in society, including in higher education institutions," he said, adding that students should respond to the situation "appropriately".
The student press should be able to contribute to the universities' role as centers for the development of science and technology, he said. (swe)