Wednesday 6 May 2009

I Missed the World Press Freedom Day

I missed the chance to write for the Bloggers Unite on the World Press Freedom Day. Last week I've had a bad experience with my household helper. She broke into my locked drawer. I fired her just when I was mostly in the need for an assistant's aid.

I managed to write the second article of deFACEment, an article about how I viewed the exhibition. I did not have time to work on the third...something that would need interview with Teguh Ostenrik as the artist.

I had to miss the excellent chance to share a report on an international seminar "Permacity". I'd really love to go and listen to the speakers, yet I had no luck this time...(Strange, why my luck seemed to diminish every time it is something on architecture and the city?!)

I had a chat with a friend about education on the day of our National Education Day. Making it simple, a kind of a diary style writing, I wrote an article for wikimu.com...just to share some thought on education in Indonesia.

Then, struggling through time schedule I managed to come to the discussion forum hosted by the Minister of Research and Technology in Serpong. A neighbour for me, but an unknown neighbour... Actually I was more curious about the safety of the small (?) nuclear research of BATAN than the existance of Puspiptek itself. Yet, I found out that Puspiptek has a small forest of Indonesian plants, including those plants that became our incoming devisa. The fresh air, the green of the trees, and the birds' songs were all welcoming me. It seems like a nice oasis hidden in the middle of the hectic and jammed street between BSD to Bogor. I wrote an article titled "Dari Nyanyian Menristek Hingga ke Simfoni Inovasi" sharing my short time in that event.

Living in the real world make it difficult for me to keep my promise for the Bloggers Unite on the World Press Freedom Day. Actually I would like to prepare an article to share the day with other bloggers. I've even prepare the introduction in my previous entry about quality journalism. I was also lcuky to meet Mr. (pak) Wardiman Djojonegoro, an ex Minister of Education when I was waiting to have my eyes checked in Aini Hospital. I knew him, greeted him, and we talked about citizen journalism. Actually I would like to mixed the content of my conversation with him, and the previous conversation with Mr. (pak) Jakob Oetama, the Chief Executive of Kompas Gramedia group (also one of Kompas founders) when I've got the chance to aked his opinion about citizen journalism in the Indonesia Japan Expo 2008.

Those two men were a bit skeptic about citizen journalism. Pak Wardiman stressed out that the citizen voice would be better to go through the NGO. Both men were questioning the filter for news coming from the citizen. Sometimes I was also afraid of this aspect, but I think by making it open then we are learning to share ideas and to show how news are grabbed by citizen's mind. The commentators are the filters. That is why we do need the comments from real experts, or directly from the concerned party. It is nice to see that our Navy responded very quick when a citizen uploaded her question on a picture she saw in the Tanjung Nusanive-973, one of our Navy's ships. An article from the captain of the Nusanive ship expressing their gratitude for being appreciated by the community of wikimu is also the first article uploaded after the trip to the ship on Sunday. I think it showed that our Navy is also modernized (even if their ships are old...) and open to the citizens.

Yes, that Sunday I missed two important events...one is the family gathering of our Church small community "Lingkungan St. Ignatius", then the World Press Freedom Day. But for the press freedom, I think we do not really need only a particular day to talk about it. We can do it every day, every time we need to warn others about the important support we can give for the freedom of the press. This one special day, May 3rd, is only to highlight how we all share our attentions to the freedom of press.

Note: my token from the trip to the KRI Tanjung Nusanive 973 and KRI Teluk Langsa was written in admiration to the Navy for their hospitality to us as a community of citizen reporters (or may be bloggers and family?) in "Kapal Perang, Hari Kebebasan Pers, dan Generasi Muda" (War ships, World Freedom Day, and the young generation). We can't really predict what would the citizen write. So giving us the chance to visit and uploading our comments in our articles meaning that they also give us freedom in the world freedom day. Hopefully in the war zone, they will also respected the professional journalists who tried to cover the news. Yet, deep down my heart, I'd be more appreciate the world without any war.

Additional note: Another article came out from the visit "Para Seniman di KRI Tanjung Nusanive 973" sharing about the artistic activity during the visit.

Our visit and articles became more meaningful after the accident of C-130 Hercules. The Hercules' crash made the journal paid attention to the weapon system's main instrument (alutsista). As citizens we've witness the Navy's weapon system's main instrument, we've voiced out our concern about it. We acknowledge how important for us a country of more than 17,000 islands to have a proper and renewed alutsista/weapon system's main instrument. We only hope that on planning and executing the plan to renew "alutsista", those who are involved in it would not use it as a way to increase their personal income.

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