Germany, Indonesia explore news cooperation between DPA and ANTARA

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The German Embassy in Jakarta is exploring potential news cooperation between Indonesia's ANTARA News Agency and Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) to expand Indonesian public access to quality news and information from Germany.

German Ambassador to Indonesia Ralf Beste raised the initiative during a meeting with the President Director of ANTARA News Agency, Abdul Hakim, in Jakarta on Thursday.

Beste said the embassy is ready to facilitate efforts to explore cooperation opportunities between the two news agencies.

He noted that DPA has a global news network comprising around 80 offices in various countries.

However, Beste says its coverage in Southeast Asia remains limited, making potential cooperation with ANTARA mutually beneficial.

"We can help you gain better access to news content from our news agency, DPA," Beste said.

He explained the cooperation could take the form of news exchanges, subscriptions to DPA's news services at special rates, or a combination of both.

Beste believes a pilot project could serve as a more practical initial step before establishing broader cooperation.

ANTARA's President Director welcomed the initiative and expressed interest in renewing cooperation with DPA.

The two news agencies previously established a partnership in 2016, although it was not continued.

He said ANTARA is open to discussing mutually beneficial news exchange arrangements, including technical and legal aspects, with the respective teams from both institutions.

Abdul Hakim said the cooperation could subsequently be formalized through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as the basis for its implementation.

During the meeting, both sides also discussed the challenges facing professional journalism amid the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), disinformation, and the growing prevalence of citizen journalism.

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Translator: Katriana
Editor: Bayu Prasetyo
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