19 February 2004	Thursday	27 Zilhaj 1424

PESHAWAR, Feb 18: Young journalists can use the Internet for locating facts, background information and expert opinion for reporting, said Aslam Mujahid, director information resource centre (IRC) of the US embassy.

The consulate had arranged a one-day training workshop for the students of journalism and young newsmen on "Journalism on the Internet" here at the University of Peshawar.

Mr Umar Farooq of the IRC told journalists about how to make use of the Internet. He said the Net use would help improve their skills. He not only gave a list of the Internet resources, but also told them how to use them.

"The Internet can be used for not only knowledge sharing, but it is also a boon for researchers because they can find any kind of information they need," Mr Farooq said.

If a journalist wanted to track information about the US government and its policies, he could use the international information programme (IIP) as his resource, he said.

There were the IIP electronic journals which would be beneficial to look up for reports and articles, especially for research purposes. Sources and experts on a particular topic could also be accessed easily on different websites.

"Facts and statistics could easily be located on different websites on various themes as many newspapers and magazines were available online. A young journalist could compare facts available in many newspapers and compare them to find out their reliability," Mr Mujahid said.

"Web technology has strengthened the traditional watchdog functions of journalism by giving reporters efficient ways to probe more deeply for information," he said.