41 Journalists attend RMNP training workshop

RMNP Workshop concluded

Director Public Relations Bahawalpur Nazir Khalid, DDOR Fayyaz Hussein Abbasi and Tehsil Nazim Makhdoom Syed Sabtain Bukhari listen to President RMNP Ehsan Ahmed Sehar (standing)

Ahmedpur East 23 July 2008: Forty one local correspondents today attended a Journalist’s Skills Development Workshop organised by the Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP) in the Tehsil Municipal Administration Hall. Director Public Relations Bahawalpur Division Nazir Khalid, President RMNP Ehsan Ahmed Sehar and the former President of the Press Club Bahawalpur and former Resident Editor Daily Maghrabi Pakistan, Bashir Hussein Ansari, delivered lectures in two sessions which lasted for four hours each. Director Public Relations Bahawalpur Division Nazir Khalid imparted training on the topics What is news, its definitions, news values, timeliness, place of origin, the unusual, conflicts, magnitude, known names, human interest, sources of news. He also spoke on types of news reporting including political, environmental, courts and crime, accident, business and press conference reporting. Nazir Khalid spoke of the difference between a news report and ordinary writing. He outlined the structure of a news item particularly the body of a news item, besides ethics of journalism and press related laws.

Ehsan Ahmed Sehar announced that RMNP was organising more training workshops for rural journalists in other remote areas of South Punjab. he said it was clear that the Journalist’s Skills Development Programme was going to be popular as it had already evoked an enthusiastic response from rural journalists in different towns. He said the program was in response to a long standing vacuum in the availability of professional training facilities for rural journalists. A training manual for rural journalists in the Urdu language was distributed among all 41 participant.

A certificate giving ceremony was held that afternoon in the TMA hall at which Deputy District Officer Revenue Subdivision Ahmedpur East, Fayyaz Hussein Abbasi, Director Public Relations Bahawalpur Division, Nazir Khalid, and Tehsil Nazim Makhdoom Syed Sabtain Haider Bukhari gave certificates to the 41 participants –

Tehsil Nazim Makhdoom syed Sabtain Haider Bukhari presenting certificates to the participants

Deputy District Officer Revenue Fayyaz Hussein Abbasi presenting certificates to participants

Director Public Relations Bahawalpur Division Nazir Khalid giving certificates

RMNP Training Workshop

Nazir Khalid presenting certificates to journalists who attended RMNP’s workshop in Mubarakpur

Mubarakpur July 22: Director Public Relations Bahawalpur Division, Government of Punjab Nazir Khalid says the coverage of development and environmental issues is a vital responsibility of local journalists as sixty percent of the populace of Pakistan is living in
rural areas. These views were expressed while addressing a certificate giving ceremony of the One Day Journalism Training Workshop organised by The Rural Media Network Pakistan(RMNP) in Union Council hall Mubarakpur. It was chaired by the President of the Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP) Ehsan Ahmed Sehar while Nazim Union Council Town Mubarakpur Chaudhry Mohd Sharif and Medical Officer Rural Health Complex Mubarakpur Doctor Talha Naeem Cheema were also present. The Director Public Relations Bahawalpur Division stated that despite the airing of dozens of private TV channels, the importance of print media had not been decreased. He underlined the need of educating the rural populace on development and environmental issues so that they could stand up for their rights. Commenting of the role of the rural journalists Nazir Khalid said that district correspondents were the backbone of the newspaper and media industry. The problem of the lack of facilities in rural Pakistan was an obstacle in utilizing the potential of these journalists most of whom were untrained and unaware of media ethics. He lauded the role of RMNP for providing training facilities in rural areas and small towns, saying there was mushroom growth of the number of district correspondents after the launching of regional editions of major newspapers from several cities of the country. He opined that the power shift towards rural areas had made it essential to focus on community journalism, hence big media houses and government should chalk out plans on taking new media trends to the doorsteps of local journalists based in rural areas. Earlier President RMNP Ehsan Ahmed Sehar said that more than 100 male journalists and 60 women writers had benefited so far by attending RMNP workshops and training courses. He announced that RMNP planned to organise computer training courses for rural journalists in the current year and urged rural journalists from Noorpur Nauranga Tehsil Sadar Bahawalpur and Mubarakpur town to form Press Freedom Monitoring Committees so that when press freedom and freedom of expression violations occurred in far flung areas they could be passed to press freedom groups working with RMNP. He disclosed that RMNP was planning to release its E-newsletter Sadiq News in the Urdu language to press clubs and senior journalists functioning in rural zones, besides the holding of press freedom seminars. Later on Director Public Relations Bahawalpur Nazir Khalid, President RMNP Ehsan Ahmed Sehar, Nazim Town Mubarakpur Chaudhry Mohammad Sharif and Medical Officer Rural Health Complex Doctor Talha Naeem Cheema gave certificates to fifteen journalists –

Mohd Faheem Akhter
Shahid Bashir Anjum
Ghulam Murtaza Chaudhry
Mohd Ejaz Baloch
Imam Bakhsh Bhatti
Ijaz Ahmed
Syed Mazhar Hussein Bukhari
Syed Ishrat Abbas
Faraz Haider Khan
Qamar Rasheed Missan
Mohd Azizuddin Mian
MazharulHaq
Mubashar Hussein Syed
Shabbir Ahmed Qureshi
Mazhar Raheed.

These journalists attended two six hour sessions in which Director Public Relations Nazir Khalid and President RMNP Ehsan Ahmed Sehar delivered lectures on news gathering, news writing and news transmission. Director Public Relations also spoke on the art of interviewing, feature writing, ethics of journalism, and the Press & Publication Ordinance.

Ehsan Ahmed Sehar and Nazir Khalid lecturing at the RMNP workshop in Mubarakpur

CJA Workshop

Dr Shamasuddin and Michael Griffin

Renowned British journalist Michael Griffin ran this four day workshops in Ahmedpur East 16-19 June 2003 to impart basic skills to rural journalists. This was the first training workshop run by the CJA in a remote area since the CJA was founded in 1978. The workshop was held at the Ahmedpur Higher Secondary School and was attended by 10 female journalists and 15 male journalists. Due to cultural requirements separates classes were conducted for lady journalists which lasted two of the four days allocated for the workshop. The women were given presentations on writing skills, developing stories, the news pyramid, corruption its causes and effects, how media can help in the fight against corruption, and basic details about Pakistan Freedom of Information Act and how it can help them. A survey was also conducted to determine the women journalists priorities in the fight against corruption and its results showed the participants thought that in the fight against corruption freedom and democracy and the example set by leadership were top priorities. The result was the same for the survey of the male journalists. The male participants of the workshop went through the same course and were also given exercise to determine their level of competence.

University students learning interview techniques in CJA Course

Stories pertinent to Ahmedpur were discussed in details and investigative techniques imparted by Michael Griffin. A presentation on bonded labour was given by Malik Abdul Aziz, advocate and a labour activist from the area of Liaquatpur who gave a detailed history of bondage and how the media can help the less privileged by reporting on their plight. A local advocate from Ahmedpur also gave a presentation and discussed issues such as libel and slander. Griffin was assisted by Ziaul Islam Zuberi a columnist from Karachi, and a volunteer with Transparency International who gave a presentation on the subjects of corruption and the freedom of information act. The local facilitator for this workshop was Ehsan Ahmed Sehar and it was inaugurated by Nawab of Bahawalpur, Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi.

Chaudhry Tahir Jamil Ex-president BCCI, Zia-ul-Islam Zubairi, Ehsan Ahmed Sehar, Malik Rashid Ahmed, EX-MPA Abdullah Khan Dahar, Syed Khairat Bukhari, Ch Tahir Jamil, Mian Ilyas Ayaz, Mian Rafiat-ur-Rehman Rehmani, journalists Shabbir Qureshi, Mazhar Rasheed, Hasnain Askari, and Akram Zafari addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Commonwealth Journalists Association training workshop in Ahmedpur Public School Ahmedpur East

Amir of Bahawalpur Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi presenting Commonwealth Journalists Association Britain certificates to local journalists Ehsan Ahmed Sehar, Shabbir Qureshi, Syed Hussnein Askari, Mazhar Rashid, Akram Zafari, Shahid Bashir, Iftikhar Rehmani, Syed NajamulHassan, Imran Mueed Perwaz, SaifulIslam, and Mudassar Saleem on completing the four days long Investigative Journalism training course organised with the collaboration of Nawa-i-AhmedpurSharqia in a ceremony held at Canal Rest House on 19th June 2003.

Ian Gillham

Message 8th June 2003 from the Executive Director of the CJA Mr Ian Gillham:

Good journalism is at the heart of a good society. Governments and councils cannot act wisely without fair,clear and accurate information. The people cannot assess the actions of governments and councils,and choose their rulers wisely, without fair clear and accurate information. The journalist is the bearer of the information. Fairness, clarity and accuracy are the hallmarks of a good professional.

David Spark

Message 7th June 2003 from Mr David Spark the Editor of the CJA newsletter:

The course at AhmedpurEast ia an unusual venture for the Commonwealth Journalists Association. It is not being held in a major city and it is not being held in English. A donor to provide money was found, imaginative enough to see the point of offering training to journalists working in unfashionable but nevertheless important places. S.M.Fazal Pakistan CJA chapter President from Karachi told the CJA conference in Bangladesh in February that courageous but poorly paid reporters in the Pakistani countryside have been exposing social evils and human rights violations at great personal risk from militiants, bad landlords, drug smugglers and other criminals. Newspapers have been exposing honour killings of women, trafficking in women and children, bonded labour in agriculture and forced child marriages. Thousands of bonded labourers working in brick klins in the Punjab as virtual slaves have been set free through courageous work by human rights activists and bold reporting in the press. So as Mr Fazal points out,the work of journalists in such places as AhmedpurEast can make a big contribution to Pakistani society.