Harry Surjadi is an experienced science journalist and founder of two journalists’ organizations: the Society of Indonesian Environmental Journalists and the Society of Indonesian Science Journalists.
He started his journalism career at an agriculture magazine, Trubus and then worked at Kompas Daily, the largest newspaper in Indonesia where he covered environment and sci-tech issues. In 2000 he founded a news portal, Astaga.com, with some journalist friends, moving to freelance a couple of years later.
Harry was a group leader for SJCOOP Asia, part of the WFSJ mentoring programme and has coordinated and led training sessions in environmental reporting for journalists and policymakers. He is the founder of Tempo Witness, a citizen journalism platform, where he is still a trainer and editor.
In December 2023 Harry was elected President of WFSJ. He would like the Federation to provide opportunities for science journalists in the Global South to meet, collaborate and network. WCSJ 2025 in Pretoria, South Africa will be one such occasion, but he would like the Federation to support regional projects, events and training opportunities.
Harry would like the Federation to continue collaboration and networking with scientific and research institutions globally, including the specialized agencies of the United Nations – such as UNESCO, WHO, UNEP and UNDP. Following the experiences helping journalists covering COVID-19, he would like WFSJ to focus on providing assistance to colleagues – not only science journalists – to advance climate change reporting through training and mentoring programs.
He says: “I invite members of WFSJ, science journalists and scientists around the world to unite in efforts to urge governments and policymakers to combat climate change and to assist countries in the Global South in this regard.”
In photo Harry gives training on environmental journalism for students of the University of Indonesia near the Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park, in November 2023. The training was supported by the Pulitzer Center and organized by the Research Center Climate Change University of Indonesia (RCCC UI).