• May 22, 2005
• General News, Training and Capacity Building
• Web Desk

Date: May 22, 2005
Location: Ahmedpur

Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) organized a 3 Day Journalism Training Workshop at Ahmedpur Sharqia, southern Punjab, for local journalists and women on 22-25 May 2005 in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).

Ahmedpur Sharqia, located at a distance of 75 kilometers from Bahwalpur, is an important business and political center of former princely State of Bahawalpur. With a population of over one lakh people, Ahmedpur Sharqia is a semi rural town but is fast growing into a modern city as a result of a number of development programmes sponsored by the local authorities.

The workshop held at the auditorium of Ahmedpur Sharqia Public School was attended by 26 participants. The break up was 11 women consisting of college teachers, social workers and other educated women. The 15 men represented various national, regional and local newspapers and magazines of Ahmedpur Sharqia and nearby towns.

Pakistan Press Foundation team was consisted of Mr. Fazal Qureshi, Vice Chairman of PPF, and Mr. Tariq Ahmed. Veteran local journalist Mr. Ehsan Ahmed Sehar, editor of weekly Nawa-i-Ahmedpur Sharqia, and correspondent of Pakistan Press International, acted as organizer of the workshop.

Mr. Ehsan Sehar in his opening remarks said Ahmedpur Sharqia is an underdeveloped tehsil of district Bhawalpur and local journalists are in dire need of journalism training.Chief Guest, Mr. Malik Farooq-e-Azam, MNA Bahawalpur, inaugurated the workshop proceedings. In his address to participants, he stressed that journalists should project real picture of society and avoid narrating unconfirmed news stories.

Later, Mr. Fazal Qureshi briefed the objectives of Pakistan Press Foundation and emphasized that objective of the PPF was to enable journalists especially women to express their opinions through effective writing. He added journalistic writings should focus attention on issues.

After introduction by participants, the working sessions began. The first consisted of the brainstorming about definition of news. This was followed by explanation of the principles of news writing, the concept of Inverted Pyramid in news writing, the principles of 5 W’s and one H. Every segment was followed by open discussion through questions and answers covering a wide range of subjects relating to news writing. This was followed by a practical exercise on news writing. The participants were given basic material and asked to write a news item with a proper news lead.

Mr. Tariq Ahmed than started a discussion on principles of news ethics and new values. The participants took part in the discussions and all aspects of journalism ethics including complaints about
blackmailing and irresponsible news reporting.

Next was the lecture on article and feature writing. The lecture covered article writing from beginning to end. The lecture emphasized the need for professional preparation of a neat and clean manuscript, the importance of photographs and finally on how to market articles and features in the media. In the practical exercise that followed, the participants were asked to select a subject, write an article on some issue of their area which could be used for release to the newspapers. Part of the exercise was done as homework. Their output was then discussed in open session and evaluated.

The next segment of the programme was about laws affecting journalists and importance of maintaining reference records on subjects of interest to the writers. In the last segment, an open discussion followed. Participants also gave their feedback about the workshop.

Syed Mazhar Husain from Daily Dastoor Bhawalpur, registering his views about workshop, said the standard of the training workshop was good. That would help him stepping into profession of article writing. District correspondents have been confined to district level only, he opined. They should be given international exposure as well, he added.

Mr. Shabi-ul-Hasan Ramzi form Daily Khabrain said this workshop would help him in rooting basic flaws out of writing. ‘It gave an opportunity to search out social evils and motivated me to make it public”, he told. Now he would preferably take care of basic elements of writing, he added.

Ms. Fuazia Hameed said the training workshop provided awareness and knowledge about journalism and created confidence. Before this she did not know how to write an article for a newspaper.She said it has become easy for her to express her views on local issues.

Ms. Saima Zafar Lashari said the workshop was very useful. Before this workshop she did not have clear picture of what journalism or writing indeed is. She said she could now write on public issues in better way.

Mohammad Akram Zafri from Daily Lahore said the topics covered in the workshop are necessary for journalists. He said it was first time that he got a chance to write an article for the newspaper.

Later, the certificate distribution ceremony was chaired by Mr. Muzammil-ur-Rashid Abassi, MPA Ahmedpur East. In his speech Mr. Muzammil appreciated PPF for having organized the journalism training workshop in Ahmedpur Sharqia. He specially welcomed the measure for having included women in the workshop. He also advised journalists to be responsible and accurate in their reporting. The Chief Guest then distributed certificates among the participants.