 |
|
|
 |
|
|
Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) organised a three day workshop on “Monitoring Press Freedom in Local Communities” at Sadiqabad, District. Rahimyar Khan for local journalists on 27-29 June 2005.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
PPF Workshop on Monitoring Press Freedom, Sadiqabad
|
| |
Date: |
June 27-29, 2005 |
Location: |
Sadiqabad |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) organised a three day workshop on “Monitoring Press Freedom in Local Communities” at Sadiqabad, District. Rahimyar Khan for local journalists on 27-29 June 2005.
Sadiqabad is an important Tehsil town of Rahim Yar Khan district of southern Punjab. Located at a distance of 70 kilometers from the district headquarters, it is an important business and agricultural town of great importance. The workshop was held at the Jinnah Hall of Sadiqabad Tehsil Council and was attended by 20 press correspondents representing various national, regional and local newspapers and magazines. The PPF instructors team consisted of Mr.Fazal Qureshi, Chief Editor PPI & Vice Chairman PPF, Mr. Abdul Khaliq Shakir, senior journalist from Sadiqabad. Senior journalist and PPI correspondent in Sadiqabad Hakim Ghulam Hassan Awan acted as organizer of the workshop. The workshop opened with a recitation from the Holy Quran . Mr. Abdul Khaliq Shakir, in his opening remarks emphasized the importance of such training workshops for raising the skills and knowledge of local journalists. He said freedom of press cannot be won easily, and journalists should remain constantly vigilant about freedom issues.
In his brief opening remarks, Mr.Fazal Qureshi informed the participants about the concept behind the workshop. He also explained how PPF had been playing a notable role in the defence of freedom of press in Pakistan in collaboration with national and international media organisations. The workshop sessions covered various aspects of monitoring freedom of press.The first working session devoted to”Understanding the Legal Basis of Press Freedom”. Mr. Abdul Khaliq Shakir brainstormed journalists about the freedom of press situation in their district.
This was followed with a distribution of documents on national and international laws and conventions on freedom of press. Five copies of a booklet in Urdu entitled A Guide to Defence of Freedom of Press translated by PPF was also donated for the library of the local Press Club. The second session was devoted to a detailed review of the various laws relating to the media such as the Telegraph Act, The Official Secrets Act, the laws of defamation and contempt of court. He explained that despite the high level of freedom of press prevailing in the country, there was still need to be vigilant. The session followed an open discussion on the subject.The next session was about “Designing Action Alerts to Report Pr
ess Freedom Violations”.
It was explained that an Action Alert was a report of the event or issue, which was sent out to individuals and organisations to seek their support and suggest action to resolve the issue. The final segment of the workshop was devoted to Freedom of Information Rules 2004 which allowed citizens and ournalists access to information from Federal government bodies. The participants were provided copies of the law and application forms. As a practical exercise, the participants were then asked to fill application forms seeking information on subjects of their interest from the Federal Government organisations. The forms were filled, checked and then placed in envelops to be posted to government bodies after payment of required fee of Rs. 50 in the government treasury.
The workshop ended with a general discussion and feedback from participants about the proceedings. Miss Shamsunnia Qudsia, correspondent Nawai Waqt said she had learnt a lot from this workshop and would further improve her skills through practice. She said the journalists, specially women journalists in their district, do not have opportunities of training which has resulted in distortions of their professional values and performance. Mr.Mohammad Sharif of Daily Kalam Waqt I can now write in a better manner about local and national problems.He appreciated the practical nature of the haworkshop but wanted an increase in its duration. He said he found practical exercises very helpful in his learning process. It was also heartening to learn that PPF was taking up cases of targeted newsmen and newspapers. This would help raise the morale of working newsmen in rural areas.
Mr. Farooq Shahzad, of Daily Dinayat our local journalists do not know about principles of journalism. The workshop had also increased his knowledge about issues of freedom of press and rights of journalists. He appreciated PPF help to victimized journalists saying that it was heartening to learn that some organization was looking after their interests. Mr. Khaliq Ahmed Jatala of Daily Kalam Waqt said it was surprising that we had not even heard of Freedom of Information rules. He thanked PPF for informing them and also filling application forms for information through practical exercise. In the end the participants filled Freedom of Press Network forms for record of the PPF so that they could be contacted by PPF for information and comments whenever a case of violation of press freedom occurred in their area.
|
| List
of Participants |
| Name |
Designation
|
Organization |
| Mr. Rana M. Arshad Javeed |
Correspondent
|
Daily Khabrain |
| Mr. Syed Junaid Kasim |
Correspondent
|
Daily Islam |
| Mr. M.Afzal Siddiqui |
N.N.I
|
Daily Ausaf |
| Mr. Dr.Muhammad Saeed Rao |
Special Correspondent
|
Daily Amn |
| Mr. Shakeel Jatala |
Editor
|
Daily Kalam-e-Waqt |
| Mr. Mohammad Sharif |
Correspondent
|
Kalam Waqt |
| Mr. Hakeem Ghulam Hassan Awan |
Correspondent
|
Pakistan Press International |
|
Mr. Ch. Abdul Khaliq Shakir |
Correspondent
|
Pakistan Press International |
| Mr. M. Farhan Iqbal |
Editor
|
Daily Diyanat |
| Mr. Munawar Hussain Fayaz |
Editor
|
Nawai Waqt |
| Mr. Malik Khushi Mohammad Waseem |
President
|
National Press Club |
| Mr. Farooq Shahzad |
Incharge Magzine
|
Daily Diyanat |
| Mr. Abdul Sattar Sandhu |
Editor
|
Daily Diyanat |
| Mr. Rana Abdul Khaliq |
Correspondent
|
Daily Karnama |
| Mr. Ashfaq Ahmed |
Correspondent
|
Nawai Waqt |
| Mr. Tanveer Hussain |
Staff Reporter
|
Daily Kalam-e-Waqt |
| Mr. Shahzada Abbas |
Reporter
|
NiaDor |
| Mr. Irfan Rafiq Choudry |
Correspondent
|
Nayador |
| Mr. M. Ajmal Nazeer |
Editor
|
Daily Difa |
| Mr. Rums Misbah Khan |
|
|
| Mr. M .Zahid |
|
|
| Mr. Mohammad Yousaf Khalid |
|
|
|
|
