Workshop for media persons held
PESHAWAR: Speakers at a daylong training session for media persons stressed the need for following the international code of conduct while handling the stories of torture. “Torture is considered as one the most heinous crimes in the civilized world,” Shaukat Ali, a trainer of the daylong session said.
The programme was organised by Individualland Pakistan (IL-Pakistan) a non-governmental organization (NGO) in collaboration with Foundation of Open Society Institute (FOSI) on Saturday here at a local hotel. In the even several journalists belonging to both print and electronic media participated. He added that torture survivors not only suffer physical pain, but also bear psychological scars for the rest of their people in society.
While discussing the definition of the term torture he said that the UN Convention against Torture (CAT) 1984 says, that torture is ‘Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentional inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.
In the training session media persons were also engaged in group discussion and practical group work presentations to make them familiar with terms uses in the routine stories. It was added that the IL-Pakistan has launched a yearlong project on sensitization of media personnel on the issue of torture, wherein it also actively engaged the national media from time to time. A baseline survey form was also distributed among the participants before starting the session, to gauge their perception on the issue of ‘torture’ and also to device the future strategy in this regard.
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