MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Public Relations Department will soon launch an award for the AJK based journalists working in different mediums for their exclusive work in investigative and objective journalism. 

An announcement to this effect was made by Director Public Relations (DPR) Raja Azhar Iqbal during a visit to the office of Capital Journalists Forum here on Friday.

Three journalists each from print and electronic media would be chosen from among the applicants by a committee of senior professionals for their work in different fields, such as features and packages on AJK’s tourism potential, environmental and development issues, he said.  

Mr Iqbal, who was accompanied by assistant directors Syed Basharat Kazmi and Mirza Bashir Jaral, said it was high time to discourage and discard statement journalism and instead focus on issue based journalism.

Mr Iqbal was of the view that journalists could play a pivotal role in elevating the living standards of people by convincing them to pay attention to livelihood opportunities in private sector, instead of running for the government jobs.

He said his department, under the guidance of Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, was taking a number of measures to develop and promote state based media.

These measures also included strict audit and monitoring of circulation to get rid of dummy publications and facilitate the genuine ones in AJK, he said.

Mr Iqbal further said that inter-provincial visits of AJK based journalist would also be revived to provide them opportunity to learn about the issues of other provinces.

He also announced that efforts would be made to grab foreign scholarships for AJK journalists.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2015

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