Code of ethics for Press within a month, says information secretary
ISLAMABAD- The new code of ethics for the print media, drafted by the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE), is under way and will be promulgated in a month or so, federal information secretary Syed Anwar Mehmood said in a consultative workshop for media persons.
The workshop on “monitoring and sensitization of print media on portrayal of women in press” was organized by Aks (image), a research and resource NGO in Islamabad. Mr. Anwar Mahmood said that the new code of ethics would be a complete document outlining standards of morality, sensationalism, violence, sexual offences against women and children.
“Whether it will have any impact has yet to be seen,” he told a question.
The federal secretary said there was no institutional impediment on raising women issues in newspapers. “Lack of portrayal of women issues could be due to the fact that there are not many women working in newspapers and advocacy groups have not been interacting,” he observed.
He said a series of workshops would be held where representatives of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and CPNE would be invited to derive some measures.
“Women in Pakistan, like in various Third World countries, are underprivileged and more prone to exploitation,” Mr. Anwar Mahmood said. “Empowerment is the key word. You have to empower people and then women.”
The federal secretary said empowerment of women in Pakistan was directly related to education. He called for educating women and making them aware of their rights and making them economically strong.
Comparing the print and the electronic media, he said, given the rate of literacy in the country, especially amongst women and the demographic spread of electronic medium, both television and radio have a greater impact.
“Although there is a lot lacking because it is state control, there is no bar on raising the question as to what really are women issues,” he said adding: “If human rights issues are taken in totality, women issues will automatically get addressed.” Sheen Farrukh, a prominent journalist, presented a paper on the role and responsibility of Urdu press in the country.
Criticizing the Urdu press, Ms. Sheen said that women victories were either ignored or not given due coverage. She said instead of concentrating on issues concerning women, the women pages of Urdu newspapers publish articles on topics like what they do in spare time. She also claimed that women studying in journalism departments of the universities do not know the areas of women concern.
Talking about the mindset of the policy makers in the Urdu press, she said they believe, “writing about women issues is giving undue coverage to NGO’s”.
She also pointed out crucial elements, which were impediments to the process of change. “It is very rare to see the press raising women issues or generating debates that women rights are human rights,” she said.
“We keep on wasting time trying to find out what are the problems,” she said. “The answer is we already know the problems. All the issues are debatable and unfortunately the Urdu press has never had a forum addressing them.”
Affiliated with Akhbar-e-Khawateen for a long time, Ms. Sheen remembered how the magazine was subjected to slow poisoning during President Zia-ul-Haq’s regime and died an un-ceremonial death.
Ms. Tasneem Ahmer, director Aks said. The workshop was the result of lengthy research in which a number of newspapers and magazines were consulted by Ask to find out the psyche behind the derogatory headlines given to news items related to women and what was the treatment given to women issues by the press in general without targeting any particular newspaper.
In the second session of the workshop, participants raised questions such as “should women’s issues be accommodated in a special edition or should they be incorporated in the mainstream press?
Participants agreed on the formulation and implementation of code of ethics. They emphasized on the role of print media in enhancing women’s status positive coverage of women issues in both women sections and mainstream press, inclusion of more women in newspaper organizations and equal opportunities for them.
Source: Dawn
Date:9/12/2001
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