Press Freedom Day at SAFMA
LAHORE: The South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), on Tuesday, organised a seminar, titled “21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers”, in connection with the Press Freedom Day.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Secretary General IA Rehman, Senior Analyst Professor Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi, LUMS political science professor Rasool Bakhsh Raees, senior journalist Arif Nizami, The Friday Times former Editor Khaled Ahmad, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Vice President Asad Sahi and renowned columnist Ayaz Ameer spoke at the event.
While addressing the audience, IA Rehman said that different questions come to mind when one thinks about the freedom of press, questions like “how much freedom the media needs, for whom and why”. He said, “The most important thing is the correct usage of the freedom by the media organisations, which is a huge responsibility on all media persons.” Rasool Bakhsh Raees said, “Professors teaching journalism have failed in fulfilling their responsibilities since a large number of journalists do not know how to conduct questions and the importance of some questions over others.”
He said that students today lack the knowledge of state, values and history. However, talking about today’s media, he said that the media’s setup today was far better than the setup 15 years ago. “Today, the media is not limited to cities only and has spread to villages and other remote areas as well,” he said.
Khaled Ahmad said that if we took a glance at the history of journalism we would find that the era of each dictator was a black era for journalism.
He said that the journalists had to sacrifice a lot during Ziaul HaqÂ’s regime. During Zia’s regime, the owners of media organisations supported Ziaul Haq while the working journalists were sent to jails.
Separately, Professor Hassan Askari said, “Only those journalist know the importance of a free media who had to sacrifice their own freedom during the dictators’ regimes.” He added that journalism is a noble profession but sometimes, one has to sacrifice a lot to attain this nobility.
While talking to the audience, Arif Nizami said several media organisations have hidden agendas, however, they are now being exposed in front of the public. He said that the role of media during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s trial had been deplorable when most of the newspapers published editorials in favour of Zia. “Our media still has a long way to go and a lot to do for the development of the country,” he said and concluded the talk.
Source: Daily Times
Date:5/4/2011
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