Ganjar Pranowo, a Muslim, praised the role of Catholic media and their commitment in the COVID-19 emergency at award ceremony. The role of Catholic journalist is "crucial" to fight fake news about vaccines.
Semarang (AsiaNews) – Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo received an appreciation award from the Indonesian Catholic Journalists Association (PWKI) at a ceremony followed by more than 200 journalists via the web.
In his acceptance speech, Pranowo, a Muslim, thanked the country's Catholic journalists for the way in which they carry out their work, especially during the current health emergency.
The governor also watched a live Mass from Rome by three Indonesian priests; one of them collaborates with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
For Pranowo, a noble duty every catholic journalist should always abide to is to secure good things from people in the society so that they can reach their best practice, including strong mutual empathy and compassion.
Referring to some positive news about the health emergency in his province, one of the worst affected areas, he noted that residents learnt good lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and practise them every day, like volunteering to hand out food and drink to people affected by the quarantine and the partial lockdown.
“My position as Central Java governor is just to facilitate that best practices are still followed by locals,” Pranowo explained.
The Indonesian Minister of Communication, Johnny G Plate, a Catholic, also spoke at the meeting, highlighting the strategic role Catholic journalists play in promoting the national anti-COVID vaccination campaign, and fighting fake news about the vaccines on social media.
In addition to Pranowo, the Association of Catholic journalists also gave an award to General Doni Monardo, head of the coronavirus task force, General Firli Bahuri, head of the anti-corruption Commission, and stylist Anne Avantie.
Royani Lim contributed to this article)