Geo wins People’s Choice category award | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Geo wins People’s Choice category award

Saadia Khalid

ISLAMABAD: The Jang Group took a lead in the media industry by clinching five honours in Pakistan’s first ever journalism awards “The AGAHI awards 2012” organized on Wednesday by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with the leading press clubs across the country.

The People’s Choice category award for the most favourite current affairs anchor and news channel went to Hamid Mir of Capital Talk and Geo News of the Jang Group while Usman Ghafoor and Saadia Khalid achieved awards in the categories of infotainment and education respectively. The awards were given away on the basis of feedback given by six million people.

The AGAHI awards are Pakistan’s first journalism awards aimed at recognizing the country’s best journalists. The judges panel comprised of most senior media professionals from around the world who assessed the entries submitted by journalists from all over the country in over 15 different categories including business, economy, conflict, corruption, crime, education, infotainment, the nexus between water, energy and food security, gender and governance. In addition, issues like human rights, interfaith, judiciary, media ethics, terrorism and extremism have also been included to create more awareness for social issues affecting society.

Haroon Baloch of Rohi TV bagged three awards in the categories of conflict, crime and environment while the other recipients included Mohammad Ali Khan on business and economy, Idrees Bakhtiar and Muhammad Ali Khan on an exclusive piece on corruption in Herald, Mubarak Zeb on energy, water and food security, Fazal Khaliq on gender, Mashkoor Ali on governance, Ibrahim Suheyl on health, Ali Usman on Human Rights, Usman Ghafoor on infotainment, Naveed Nasim on interfaith, Asad Kharal on media ethics, Zaheer Chaudhry and Matiullah on photo-journalism, Waheedullah Afridi on terrorism and extremism.

Arif Rana from Express, won the award for the best investigative Journalist 2012 while Arshad Sharif from Duniya TV was recognized for his contribution on Pakistan’s war against terrorism.

Mishal launched a series of media development initiatives and helped journalists interact with each other through knowledge sharing platforms. It also encouraged them to introduce new perspectives and produce diverse and pluralistic content to reduce intolerance in the society.

The AGAHI President Puruesh Chaudhry, on the occasion, said that the initiative was launched as essentially an effort to raise the standards of journalism in the country, creating a new crop of correspondents and editor who can develop counter-narratives to offset extremist ideologies and work towards greater peace and harmony in Pakistan.

Mishal CEO Amir Jahangir, on the occasion, emphasized on creating Media Development Fund in Pakistan to encourage quality content and more investigative journalism. “The AGAHI initiative is about increasing the capacity of Investigative Journalism and Responsible reporting — which aims to use institutionalised sustainable media structures in Pakistan to raise the bar of journalistic standards,” he said. The presidents of Press Clubs from different parts of the country also shared their experiences on the occasion and urged government to take immediate steps for the safety of journalists. Besides that tribute was also paid to the journalists who have lost their lives while performing their duty.

The News