• March 17, 2005
• General News, Training and Capacity Building
• Web Desk

Date: March 17,2005
Location: Bhakkar

Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) organized a Journalism Training Workshop at Bhakkar, Punjab for local journalists and women from 17 to 19 March 2005.

Bhakkar,located at a distance of 200 kilometers from Multan, is an important business and political center of Thal area. It is located at the fringe of Punjab province, at a distance of only half an hour drive from Dera Ismail Khan of NWFP.

The two important cities are separated only by a bridge across River Indus, which serves as the boundary of the two provinces. With a population of over one lakh people, Bhakkar is a semi rural town but is fast growing with appearance of new buildings, roads and princely private bungalows.

The workshop, held at the District Council Hall, was attended by 28 participants. The break up was 11 women consisting of college teachers, social workers and other educated women and 17 men representing various national, regional and local newspapers and magazines.

The PPF instructors team consisted of Mr.Fazal Qureshi, Vice Chairman PPF, and senior journalist from Bhakkar Rao Muhammad Shabbir.. President of the Bhakkar Press Club Mohammad Yasin Amir inaugurated the workshop.

In his brief remarks he thanked PPF. Mr. Amir said that PPF had organised similar journalism training workshops in Bhakkar town and surrounding areas including nearby city of Dera Ismail Khan. He thanked Rao Shabbir for helping organize this workshop for journalists of Bhakkar.

After introduction by the participants the working sessions began. The first segment was 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 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. Followed was 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.

The next segment was on article and feature writing. The lecture covered article writing step by step, from how to select a subject, to 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 last segment of the program was about importance of maintaining reference records on subjects of interest to the writers.n open discussion followed in which participants gave their feedback about the workshop. Ms Rubina Niazi, a free lance journalist and columnist of Bhakkar said she found the workshop very useful since it helped her polish her writing skills.

Mrs. Naima Manzur, Principal Government Degree College for Women, Bhakkar , said that the workshop should be extended to at least one week. She also said that if the contents of the workshop had been fully explained many other women would have attended the workshop.

Mr. Shahnawaz, reporter and press photographer, Daily Maamla, Bhakkar said despite his long term as a working journalist he was glad he attended because he gained new writing skills and knowledge about improving his professional performance.

Ms.Fareeha Sarwar, Lecturer in Government Degree Collge for Women, Bhakka r said that the workshop had helped her acquire the skill 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.Mohammad Ramzan Bilal , reporter Daily Inkishaf, Bhakkar proposed that PPF should help train local trainers in this program so that the skill of article writing could be continued in surrounding areas through local initiative.

The closing session was presided over by Mr. Hameed Akbar Khan Niwani, District Nazim Bhakkar while Mr. Saeed Akbar Khan Niwani, Minister for Prisons, Government of Punjab was the chief guest who distributed the certificates to the participants. In his speech Mr. Saeed Akbar appreciated PPF for having organized the journalism training workshop in Bhakkar and welcomed the inclusion of women in the workshop.

In his speech District Nazim Hamid Akbar Khan Niwani expressed hope that as requested by the participants, another workshop of a longer duration will be held in Bhakkar. He promised all logistic support for the workshop as and when requested by the PPF. The Chief Guest then distributed certificates among the participants.