The Public Relations and Public Information Disclosure Bureau of the Universitas Indonesia (PR and KIP UI) visited the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) Depok on Tuesday (19/4) and the Television Journalism Association (IJTI) Depok City Working Group (Pokja Wartawan) on Thursday (21/4) at the PWI and IJTI-Pokja Wartawan Depok offices, respectively. The event, which was attended by 48 people, aims to strengthen the relationship between UI and Depok journalists so that they can work together in reporting on innovations developed by UI academics for the wider community.
Head of Public Relations and KIP UI, Dra. Amelita Lusia, M.Si., said, “There are so many innovations developed by UI lecturers and students. We recently held the UI Investment & Startup Forum 2022 event which highlighted the startups developed by the UI community. It is unfortunate if these findings are not reported to the public because the benefits are enormous.”
Depok PWI Chairman, Rusdy Nurdiansyah, agreed that news related to UI needs to be intensified because it helps build positive news about Depok City. This is done to counterbalance viral news that develops in the community but does not provide benefits. “For example, Depok went viral because of the news of flying coffins and Babi Ngepet (half pig creature). The impression is that all strange and negative things are in Depok. In fact, there are many positive things and achievements in Depok,” said Rusdy, who is a Republika journalist.
In addition, PWI also opened an internship program for UI students who want to work as journalists. Students can learn directly from journalists regarding good reporting and writing. This program is expected to strengthen UI’s relationship with journalists, especially Depok journalists.
To facilitate reporting at UI, journalists will be provided with press cards issued by the UI Public Relations and KIP Bureau to facilitate access in and out of UI. With the card, journalists are not charged for parking and can cover events on campus directly. Journalists will also be invited for a press tour to Faculties/Schools/Vocational education programs at the UI Depok and Salemba campuses, to cover laboratories, innovations and excellence.
The head of the Depok City Journalists Working Group, Rizki Tri Ruzpanji or who is familiarly called Iyung, welcomed the facilities that would be provided by UI. “So far, we only get press releases from WhatsApp groups and emails. Often, we need more images for media coverage and to dig deeper into the information. For this reason, this facility is expected to open access to journalist in writing news. In addition, UI is also a reference for Depok journalists in getting competent sources,” said Iyung.
In closing her speech, Amelita said UI and Depok are two things that cannot be separated. “In fact, in every release issued by UI, we write the place of publication as Depok even though the activity was held at UI Salemba. That’s because the association of UI and Depok is very strong. When people hear Depok Campus, they will immediately refer to UI Campus.”
