Suara USU Student Press won the Kasad Award 2023 for the Diversity and Tolerance category. In addition to winning in the Diversity and Tolerance category, Suara USU was nominated in two other categories. The two categories are Digital Innovation and Countering Radicalism.

The Kasad Award was held at the initiation of the Chief of Staff of the Army (Kasad) General TNI,

Dr. H. Dudung Abdurachman, together with the Press Council, SETARA Institute, and Tempo Media.

This award is a form of concern for the Army as a state apparatus towards various problems and issues of the Indonesian nation.

According to General TNI Dr. H. Dudung Abdurachman, as the Indonesian Kasad, the 2023 Kasad Award was given to appreciate the media, especially online media, that pay attention to strategic human security issues. In addition to the national and regional press, Kasad Award 2023 is also given to campus media.

The proud results were obtained at the awarding night held on Monday (10/07) at the Great General A.H. Nasution Hall, TNI Army Headquarters, Central Jakarta.

"As we know, student media are the media cadres of the future. I hope this award can trigger and encourage student journalists to pay more attention to strategic human security issues," said General Dudung.

The Kasad Award is not a competition. Rather, the award is based on an online media news database assessment. The assessment took place from May 2022 to May 2023, with a total of nearly 3 million news reports filtered. The evaluation is carried out by a jury consisting of the Chairman of the Press Council, communication science experts, and media practitioners objectively, mentioned by Dr. Ninik Rahayu, S.H, M.S, as Chairperson of the Press Council and Chairperson of the Kasad Award 2023 Jury.

The jury of the 2023 Kasad Award, the Kasad Award committee reviews all

news from cyber media in the country within the framework of human security. Paragdima human security ignites awareness of ideological threats, terrorism, stunting, natural disasters, epidemics, intolerance issues, and the need for innovative digitalization, including preserving culture.

Anna Fauziah Pane, Editor-in-Chief of Suara USU, who also represented Suara USU in receiving the award, said she was happy.

USU in receiving this award admitted that she was both happy and proud. "Happy and very proud of course. Because what we know is that this is not a race and the assessment is also carried out without us knowing that our media is being assessed. Which means that Suara USU and other winners have naturally succeeded in reporting in accordance with strategic issues which are government priority programmes as well as agents for disseminating information to the public," Anna said.

Meanwhile, General Manager of Suara USU, Affif Nikki, is stunned.

Suara USU could enter 3 nominations as well as become a winner in the 2023 Kasad Award.

"This is very impressive for me, between believing and not believing that Suara USU can reach this point. This is the first time we have received this extraordinary award which was invited directly by Army Headquarters," said Affif.

Affif hopes Suara USU will maintain its existence as campus media. "Suara USU must be more enthusiastic in the future in campus news and always channel student aspirations that want to be conveyed, as well as the management must be more active and more critical in the future," concluded Affif. (RJ)

Author: Renny Julia - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Muhammad Andriansyah - Humas