Indonesian Photojournalists, the Construction of Their Professional Identity and the Constant Negotiation against its Continuous Dilemma

The question this writing aims to address is straightforward: what do photojournalists do? At a glimpse, this seems to be an easy question to answer. Yet, institutional attempt to formally answer this question has only be made recently by Indonesian Photojournalists’ Association (Pewarta Foto Indonesia, hereinafter PFI) a professional organization comprising of more than 800 members in 20 cities in the country. With demands of the ASEAN Economic Community as the backdrop, following the footsteps of fellow journalistic associations such as radio, television and print journalists they initiated the first-ever process to set up its standard of competence. This was key, as Indonesia witnessed how lack of professionalism in the media has tainted the long-awaited postNew Order freedom of speech with poor quality of journalistic works epitomized by the way local media reported ethnic and religious conflicts (Soerjoatmodjo, 2010). Safeguarding the media with standard of competence may contribute to the reduction of violence used by various groups against the media and to strengthen journalists’ resilience. This resonates in such urgency in photojournalism sector – as most printed media, compared to online media for example, suffer from lack of revenues.