November 21, 2003	Friday	Ramazan 25, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: The need for exchange of information directly between Pakistan and Afghanistan and doing away with dependence on the Western media for access to information and analysis was stressed at a workshop of the two countries’ young journalists here on Thursday.

The Western media, it was observed at the conclusion of the workshop organized by the Future Youth Group of Liberal Forum Pakistan (LFP) in collaboration with a German NGO, Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (FNS), generally portrayed a distorted and negative, picture of developments in the two countries, often far removed from the reality.

A senior journalists said it was not foreign media’s responsibility to ensure better understanding between the peoples of the two countries. The responsibility in this regard devolved basically to the institutions and media people of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Apart from historical and cultural links, the two countries suffered together at the hands of outside powers’ for over the past quarter century, entailing undescribable sufferings and miseries for the ordinary people.

Yet, one was at a loss to find any meaningful effort at the institutional level for direct people-to-people contact. On the other hand, the past couple of years had been marked by increasing misunderstandings and bitterness on both sides of the border, it was observed.

The most glaring failure in this respect was the fact that the Pakistani newspapers had not posted a single correspondent in Afghanistan. They continue to use the same channels and individuals who “covered” the civil war in Afghanistan by telephone or on the basis of the reports fed by the CIA and other agencies.

Yet, it will be no problem for the major newspaper chains of Pakistan to arrange the availability of first-hand information and analyses about events in Afghanistan by posting their own representatives.

This will not entail any cost higher than what is spent on their own correspondents within Pakistan. If anything, it will be a negligible fraction of the huge expenditures involving maintenance of their presence at places such as London and Washington, it was pointed out.

In Afghanistan, although, the number of newspapers exceeds 150, the press is still trying to establish itself on a stable basis, the journalists from Afghanistan said. During a course for journalists, organized by the FNS, they disclosed that their wages were abysmally low.

During discussions on various measures for bringing about a modicum of liaison, it was suggested that the journalists’ unions of Pakistan and Afghanistan might establish some kind of linkage at institutional level.

Baari Salam, a young journalist from Good Morning Afghanistan radio station, said, at present, his fellow journalists were split between three unions, but efforts were on to unify them into a single organization.

In this regard, Fouzia Shahid, senior vice-president of Pakistan Federal Union Journalists, and secretary-general C.R. Shamsi recalled their struggle-filled history spanning over half- a-century, a part of which was contained in a volume which they presented to the participants.