• July 12, 2005
• General News, Training and Capacity Building
• Web Desk

Date: July 12-14, 2005
Location: Mehar

Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) in collaboration with Freidrich Ebert Stiftung ( FES ) organised a Journalism Training Workshop at Mehar Sindh , Distt. Dadu, Sindh for local journalists and women from 12-14 July 2005.

Mehar, located at a distance of 65 kilometers south of Larkana is an important business and agricultural town. Its surrounding fields produce rice and cotton in abundance. It is also an important market town for surrounding areas.The workshop held at the Rahman Hotel Hall and was attended by 27 participants, consistring of man 18 press correspondents representing national, and regional newspapers and nine educated women including social workers, students and teachers.

The PPF instructors team consisted of Mr. Fazal Qureshi, vice chairman PPF, and Mr. Iqbal Babu, senior journalist and PPI Bureau Chief from Larkana. Mr. Sarfaraz Abbasi, General Secretary GSSA, leading NGO of Mehar, acted as organizer of the workshop. In his welcome address Mr.Sarfaraz Abbasi thanked PPF for organizing the workshop at Mehar. He said he had invited PPF to organize the workshop in Mehar after learning of the usefulness of such workshops held in nearby towns of Sindh.

Mr. Fazal Qureshi in his opening remarks thanked Mr.Sarfaraz Abbasi for the excellent arrangements made for the workshop. He informed theparticipants about the concept behind the workshop. He also explained the role of PPF in raising the standards of journalism and in the defence of freedom of press in Pakistan in collaboration with national and international media organizations. This was followed by introduction by men and women participants and then the working session began. The first segment began with 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.

Lectures followed practical exercises. In the practical exercise on news writing, the participants were given material and asked to rewrite it in accordance with the principles of news writing with a proper lead. Quite a few of the participants did a good job of writing a news item. The next segment was a discussion on principles of news ethics and new values. The participants took part in discussions and all aspects of journalism ethics including complaints about blackmailing and irresponsible news reporting were discussed threadbare.

Then the segment on article and feature writing followed. The lecture covered article writing from beginning to end, stage by stage, from how to select a subject, how to write a theme sentence to determine the parameters of the subject, how to collect and sort o
ut the material and how to write the article. 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.

As a practical exercise 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. One subject was selected and participants made to brainstorm to determine the contents of the article covering all aspects. The task of writing the article was given as homework. Their output was then discussed in open session the next day and evaluated. The final segment of the programme was about importance of maintaining reference records on subjects of interest to the writers. Then an open discussion followed in which the participants also gave their feedback about the workshop. Ms.Khalida Lakhiar, a social worker, said she had acquired new skills about writing for the newspapers which she is going to practice in the coming days. She found the duration of the workshop rather short. It should at least extend over a week, she said. Ms.Rozina Solangi a social workers she had gained useful knowledge about writing press releases, and articles which will improve her output for the media. She said I have always been interested in writing and the workshop has provided me a highly useful opportunity to acquire skills for writing for newspapers. Such workshops should be held in other districts and towns also.

Mr.Riaz Chandio, correspondent Daily Khabroon said he had acquired new knowledge about principles of journalism and news writing. He said such workshops are a useful means of raising standards of journalism and should be held on regular basis. Ms.Mah Jabeen Kalhoro said that she had learnt new skills and ability to write for newspapers .This skill was important for all but more specially for women and should be included in the educational curriculum at the graduation level.

Mr. Manzoor Mehesser of weekly Tahreek said I will use the writing skills that I have gained for writing articles in the newspapers. I wish the workshop should have been of a longer duration to cover other subjects of journalism like interviews, press conferences etc. The closing session was presided over by Mr.Ghulam Shabbir Kalhoro, District Officer of Social Welfare and Community Development, District. Dadu. He distributed the certificates to the participants. In his speech Mr. Kalhoro praised PPF for having organized the journalism training workshop. He specially welcomed the inclusion of women in the workshop. He urged the newly trained journalists and women to devote their attention to the ethics of journalism and show honesty and responsibility in reporting news.