Jakarta, 11 November 2020 – Strategic communications consultancy Maverick and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) today announced an expansion of their Journalist Fellowship program, even as media houses impose more layoffs or reduced pay and working hours as the pandemic bites deeper economically.

The two organizations today announced the launch of The Journalist Fellowship Program 2020 – Batch 2 following a warm response to Batch 1 that saw 97 journalists from 20 provinces participating.

“During times like this pandemic, journalists and the media are very much needed to reduce confusion and to inform the public of developments,” said Head of Alliance of Journalists Independence (AJI) Indonesia Abdul Manan to the all participants who passed the fellowship Batch 2 selection.

Yet many of them are finding it difficult to do their jobs because of cutbacks by their media organizations, he said. The fellowship is designed to provide the selected journalists not only with economic support for their research but to also provide them with enhanced training, life hacks  and mentorship from senior journalists. 

AJI Indonesia ran a tight selection process from 97 journalists that applied for the fellowship and picked 25 journalists to join the program that runs from 11 November to 11 December 2020. The Fellows came from cities such as Semarang, Pekanbaru, Palembang, Banda Aceh, Ambon, Bekasi, DKI Jakarta, Gorontalo, Majalengka, Manado, Lombok, Palu, Pekalongan, Pontianak, and Bali.

For five weeks, on every Tuesday and Thursday, participants will attend online training and sharing sessions. All participants will will be mentored by senior journalists Mahdi Muhammad from Kompas, Jajang Jamaluddin from Koran Tempo, Mawa Kresna from Haluan.co, Rochimawati from Viva.co.id, and Mustakim from Kompas TV.

The Fellowship Batch 2 is supported by OPPO Indonesia as the main sponsor, and Pfizer as supporting sponsor. ”We thank these public-spirited companies for their sponsorship without conditions that allows the journalists to assert their professionalism, yet supporting them economically,” said Abdul Manan.

Maverick Indonesia Director Lita Soenardi the consultancy was encouraged by the improved outlook and newly-acquired knowledge and skills of the first batch of Journalist Fellows that ran from September to October this year. The participants had said that they benefited much from the mentorship and now felt better able to cope with the effects of the pandemic, especially with new life hacking skills in health, environmental awareness, entrepreneurship, and financial management.

“We are grateful to AJI and the sponsors for us to be able to extend this support to more journalists after the success of Batch 1 of the Journalist Fellowship. We, however, remain concerned for the journalists as the media industry is one of the worst hit by the pandemic,” said Lita Soenardi.

OPPO Indonesia as main sponsor of The Journalist Fellowship Program 2020 – Batch 2, stated the company is ready to assist journalists in using digital technology to maximize quality coverage. “During this pandemic, activities are taking the advantage of digital technology. Anyone, including journalists, must be able to maximize it, because the pandemic has brought changes into a new normal life,” said OPPO Indonesia PR Manager Aryo Meidianto.

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About Maverick Indonesia

Maverick is a strategic communications consultancy in Indonesia. Established in 2002, the company is trusted to handle communication strategies and programs by blue chip companies such as Airbus, APP Sinar Mas, Danone-AQUA, Spotify, Whatsapp, and Xiaomi. 

Maverick optimizes the use of purpose-driven strategy and monitoring & analytics in delivering its communication strategies and safeguarding the reputation of brands and companies.

For the past 10 years, Maverick has played an active role in building and preserving working relations with a number of communities, KOLs, and stakeholders through initiatives such as PechaKucha Night Jakarta, Catalyst, MaVoice, The Recruit, and Comms Club.  

About AJI Indonesia

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) of Indonesia was born from the resistance of the press against the unscrupulous regime of the New Order. Beginning from the media closure of Detik, Editor and Tempo on June 21, 1994. All three were closed due to their news being considered critical towards the ruler. This repressive act is what sparked the act of solidarity and resistance movement in several cities. In the end, around 100 people made up of journalists and columnists gathered at Sirnagalih, Bogor, August 7, 1994.

At present AJI has branches in 38 cities and focuses on three main issues: fight for freedom of press, increasing professionalism and welfare of journalists. This is what is then manifested into the current working program and is integrated with issues of gender and women. For this reason, AJI routinely carries out campaigns, advocacies, training, workshops, discussions, seminars, research, scholarships, book publishing etc.

For Inquiries:

Damianus Andreas

+62 812 1573 0109 | damianus@maverick.co.id