Ismira Lutfia – After five years of deliberation, media practitioners on Tuesday agreed to endorse journalists' competence standards as guidelines to improve professionalism in the industry.

Representatives from major media outlets and associations such as the Association of Private Indonesian Television Stations (ATVSI), the Indonesian Television Journalists Association (IJTI), the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Indonesian Local TV Association (ATVLI) were present at the Press Council office to officially endorse the manual.

The competence standard will come in a set of press regulations along with three other press manuals; a journalistic code of ethics, newspaper publishers' standards and guidelines for the protection of journalists, which will be officially recognized by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on National Press Day celebrations on Feb. 9 in Palembang, South Sumatra, Press Council deputy chairman Leo Batubara said.

"These guidelines are important for [media practitioners] because journalists have been criticized for lacking competence standards and people who say that it's an easy profession to enter," Leo said. "The standards are not made by the government but are made by us for us."

The council first raised the idea of competence standards in 2004 in response to the proliferation of media outlets and journalists in the wake of the reform movement that swept through the country after the downfall of former President Suharto in 1998.

Seasoned journalist and former Press Council chairman Atmakusumah Astraatmadja told the Jakarta Globe that the competence standards were needed to provide the public with a better concept of who could qualify to be a journalist.

"There has been sharp public criticism of this profession as a result of journalists' abusing their powers and exaggerating news reports," Atmakusumah said.

Press Council member Wina Armada brushed aside doubts that the competence manual would limit the number of people who chose to become journalists.

"These competence standards aim to put a stop to journalists abusing the profession and aim to act as a reference in evaluating a journalist's performance," he said.

"What we regulate in the manual are the qualifications and the competence levels of those who want to pursue careers as journalists." Wina said.

He added that the standards would not interfere with a news organization's internal policy and the level of journalist's competence in the manual need not correspond accordingly to the hierarchy in the organizational structure of a media outlet's newsroom.