Training of media persons working in hostile environment starts from 27th January.
To equip journalists with skills required to cope with dangers involved in reporting from hostile environment , Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP) has initiated a training programme for media persons of the rural and semi rural areas of South Punjab
In collaboration with Doha Centre For Media Freedom (DCMF), these trainings will focus upon print and radio journalists and will enable them to report on conflict constructively and in a manner which does not jeopardize their own well-being.
Through variety of sessions, the journalists will be sensitised about social issues of locals and how their voices need to be incorporated in the media. Two days long first training will be held in Dera Nawab Sahab on January 27-28,2018.A panel of trainers headed by Khalid Saeed former Research Coordinator Asia-Pacific Research Institute Tokyo University Japan and Professor Shehzad Ahmed Khan will hold two days long trainings along with two resource persons.
Highlighting the background of the trainings, President RMNP Ehsan Ahmed Sehar said that reporting on conflicts requires courage and dedication. “We are making sure that those who choose such a daring job also have the assurance of their safety,” he said.
He further said that these trainings will endow the journalists working in South Punjab with necessary survival mechanisms to continue their work unhindered. “This initiative will certainly improve the overall condition of media personnel in these areas and will assist them in adopting a set of precautionary measures that are necessary to survive in a hostile environment,” he added.
He said that Pakistan has a long history of conflicts and presently journalists working in feudal dominated areas of South Punjab face pressure from both extremists and feudals “Apart from the nature of the conflict, reporting of the ground realities becomes a daunting task, particularly when the parties of the conflict are altogether acting against the democratic forces including the media personnel/journalists working in these areas.”
Source. RMNP
