PESHAWAR: There should be focus on communicating development activities and knowledge about the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in order to replace the existing narrative and perception with an alternative one.

This view was shared by Dr. Altaf Ullah Khan, Chairman, Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Peshawar at a national workshop ‘Development Journalism – A Step Ahead for Fata’, organised by Independent Project Reporting (IPR) on Wednesday.

The head of mass communication department called for creating new concepts to promote development journalism.

IPR is a collaboration of the Fata Development Programme and Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Peshawar.

At the event, leading cross-media experts and academia offered full ownership to IPR to provide a platform for promoting development journalism in Fata.

Speakers urged the need for promoting development journalism in the prevailing media landscape of Pakistan.

Issues like health, education, population, and human rights, they said, were not getting enough space and importance in the local and national media.

Politics, militancy and security, they said, occupied much of the time and space across the broad spectrum of media.

Additional Chief Secretary, Fata, Muhammad Azam Khan in his brief comments offered Fata Secretariat’s full assistance to IPR and assured that journalists would be allowed full access to oversee and monitor development projects to ensure transparency and quality of work.

He also informed participants that his administration was setting up FM broadcast stations at the tribal regional headquarters level to provide a voice to the local community.

Mubashir Zaidi, Editor Investigation at Dawn said the workshop provided senior journalists an opportunity to interact with journalists from Fata and find ways to learn and adopt modern journalistic techniques to help produce quality material for mainstream media.

Senior Journalist Ziauddin and former editor Dawn and Express Tribune said the workshop had sensitized the national media outlets to focus on Fata, its geography, its history and issues and called for more frequent interaction to increase understanding.

Renowned television anchor, Syed Talat Hussain said the workshop has been a unique event that brought professionals from all major media outlets and academia under one roof to discuss ways for promoting development journalism.

“At least one fact has been established by media professionals today. Heads of major media outlets are present here and all of them agree that Fata has been ignored and there is a need for projecting development activities in Fata in the mainstream media,” he added

Head of FATA Development Programme, Rainer Glassner appreciated the objectives behind holding the workshop and hoped that the recommendations set forth by the participants would bring further improvement.

More than one hundred participants including renowned journalists from Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi attended the event along with well-reputed academia and students from fifteen national and private universities from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.