Ehsan Ahmed Sehar honoured for courageous reporting and press freedom work
Ahmedpur Press Club,AhmedpurEast honored senior journalist and press freedom advocate Ehsan Ahmed Sehar for his more than 40 years long journalistic services and press freedom work in grand dinner ceremony held here on 9th November,2017 which was attended by more than 400 persons including journalists from former princely state Bahawalpur,leaders of main stream political parties,notables civil society activists and elected representatives of the region.
Ehsan Ahmed Sehar who is President Rural Media Network Pakistan(RMNP) received first Press Club Golden Jubilee Award from Mayor City Malik Usman Rasheed Bobak.
Ehsan Ahmed Sehar is only journalist of the area who was arrested and sent to jail twice for his courageous reporting during the military dictator General ZiaulHaq regime in 1978 and 1979 while several cases were filed against him in different courts for his articles published in national weeklies and dailies against fundamentalists and exposing corruption of feudals and bureaucrats, said Chairman Press Cub Rafiq Safdar who highlighted the matchless services of President RMNP. He said that by establishing RMNP, Mr Sehar organised dozens of training workshops, launched Freedom of Expression Newsleter Sadiq News and established annual RMNP Sadiq Press Freedom award in collaboration with different international oganisations and press freedom groups.Journalists leaders Sarfraz Zaidi,Abdul Hameed Saqib,Shabiir Qureshi, Suleman Farooqi ,Iqbal Danish and others paid rich tributes to Ehsan Ahmed Sehar for his services which he rendered for the rural journalists and district correspondents of Pakistan They said that Mr Sehar is pioneer of safety training for journalists in Pakistan and first of all he started to organise World Press Freedom Day seminar in rural Pakistan since 3rd May 1999 with the support of World Association of Newspapers(WAN) now WAN-IFRA .
Ehsan Ahmed Sehar spoke out against ” brutality” against media persons in Pakistan and expressed hope for greater media freedom for the news media. Ehsan Ahmed Sehar who is also editor of Daily newspaper Nawa-I-AhmedpurSharqia and FOE Newsletter Sadiq News said that he was encouraged by the recognition but noted that Pakistan remained one of the dangerous countries in the world for media persons with seven journalists killed in the line of during current year.He vowed to continue his struggle for the safety and security of media persons in Pakistan.Journalists in Pakistan “are working in an environment where they could be killed anytime,” he told the award ceremony .
Mayor City Malik Usman Rasheed Bobak also lauded the services of Ehsan Ahmed Sehar for supporting democratic forces in the region and termed him a fearless torch bearer of press freedom.He announced to support his demand for the construction of a new building of press club for local journalists.
Source: RMNP