VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta (voinews): Communication and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate urged journalists to utilize technology in carrying out their work, such as fact-checking, during the 2023 National Press Day (HPN) commemoration in Medan, North Sumatra, on Thursday,

"Media can help through fact-checking by using digital technology, processing numeric data analysis, analyzing social networks, to optimizing the cost of other variables in performing various journalism work," he said in a press statement.

With the current advancement in technology and digital space, journalists are expected to carry out their work with the help of technology, which includes artificial intelligence (AI) that many people have adopted.

Plate cited the example of a foreign news-gathering agency that is using AI to support productivity.

The use of AI by the United States' Associated Press, for instance, has allowed the agency to increase its article production by 12-fold, he noted.

He believes that the use of technology by journalists in carrying out their duties can also be the road to ensuring a clean and beneficial digital space for people searching for news.

It is deemed important especially given the massive utilization of social media in the current era, wherein digital space has become vulnerable to the challenges of disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation.

The minister said he expected journalists to maintain their social function by undertaking healthy and quality journalistic work through fact-checking.

Plate's ministry is encouraging journalists and the government to continue to maintain the digital space responsibly.

The ministry has continued to actively coordinate with the Press Council on undertaking cyber patrols to handle negative content and check the spread of disinformation in the digital space, he informed.

This has been undertaken to provide a safe, comfortable, and productive digital ecosystem for everyone, he remarked.

Plate also lauded the free press that has currently grown quite well in Indonesia. (Antaranews)