The article titled “From Anxiety to Suicide: A Portrait of a Tech Worker Squeezed by the Pandemic” has placed Bimo Aria Fundrika, a journalist from Suara.com, as the first winner of the Journalist Award. The winning article was selected among more than 120 articles by jurors consisting of Ati Nurbaiti, senior journalist, Heru Margianto, managing editor for Kompas.com and Abdul Hakim, ILO’s COVID-19 prevention project manager.

Meanwhile, for the journalistic photo category, Aji Hendro from Godepok.com won the first place with his photo titled “Spraying Disinfectant”. The jurors, consisting of Arbain Rambey, senior photojournalist, Adek Berry, AFP photojournalist and Dr Yuka Ujita, ILO’s Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) specialists, selected the winning photo among 90 photos submitted nationwide.

The Journalism Award is an award initiative jointly organized by the ILO and the Alliance of Indonesian Journalist (AJI) Indonesia, aimed to recognize and foster the work of Indonesian journalists in promoting occupational safety and health (OSH) issues during the pandemic. Under the theme “OSH in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic”, the winning articles and photo stories were announced during a virtual journalism award ceremony on 22 February.

Abdul Hakim, manager of the ILO’s Enhancing COVID-19 Prevention at and through Workplaces project, stated that COVID-19 has become the impetus for improved OSH systems to be in place and a preventive culture be deeply rooted in the principles and actions by the government, employers, workers and the public at large. "Encouraging a culture of prevention in OSH through journalistic work contributes to the development process in Indonesia," he said.

The winning article covers an important issue on work-related stress in tech industry, particularly during this pandemic. The stress has impaired employees’ health and productivity. The article also points out the importance of occupational safety and health (OSH), particularly in tech industry that is known for its intensity of work, overtime and demanding.

It took three weeks for Bimo to conduct research and interviews as well as to write and finalize the article. His main challenge was to find resource persons who were willing to talk openly about the work stress they felt.

“Not many of them have the courage to talk about their mental health problem as they are afraid of being stigmatized,” shared Bimo. “Thus, I hope the article can urge the employers to tackle this worrisome concern and to create a healthier, safer and more productive work atmosphere.”

He also hoped that the article could draw the government’s attention to the outdated Work Safety Act No. 1 of 1970 that does not yet cover the issue of mental health. For his next article, he is now working on issues related to harassment and violence against domestic workers during the pandemic, linked to the efforts to ratify the ILO’s Violence and Harassment Convention No. 190 (C190) in the country.

As a professional photojournalist for 12 years, Aji would like to show efforts taken to eliminate the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic. His winning photo was taken in Depok, West Java, exhibiting the implementation of high safety standards. The photo captured a worker sterilized one of the shopping centres in Depok from COVID-19 after one of the tenants was infected by the virus.

Both Bimo and Aji were awarded with the first prizes of Rp 15 million. The second winner for the article category was awarded to Fransiskus Wisnu Wardhana Dany from Harian Kompas with the article titled "Transjakarta Driver, One Steering Wheel Different Fate" and for the photo story was awarded to Arie Basuki from Merdeka.com with photo titled "Working with Strict Health Protocols". Both won a prize of Rp 7.5 million Rupiah.

The award is organized by ILO’s Enhancing COVID-19 Prevention at and through Workplaces project, funded by the Government Japan The Project aims to improve OSH in Indonesia by involving public participation in creating a preventive culture in the workplace during the COVID-19. Media engagement through the journalist award was one of the efforts taken to improve greater involvement of the public and mass media in this issue.

The live streaming of the journalism award ceremony can be viewed on ILO TV Indonesia.