QUETTA: Journalists were urged at a media training workshop in the provincial capital to avoid sensationalism of news stories.

They were told that sensationalism had become a trend — especially in electronic media — and it was important to confirm a news report before publishing or broadcasting it.

“Unconfirmed stories can lead to defamation and are a sheer violation of media ethics,” said Gulmina Bilal Ahmed, the director of Individual-Land, a non-governmental organisation, on Wednesday.

She said a bad trend of broadcasting unconfirmed news stories had been reported, particularly in the electronic media, where sometimes news items were allowed to run without confirmation, “this violation of media ethics is done only to increase media ratings in order to get maximum advertisements”.

“The trend of creating sensational news stories has posed threats to reporters and also to those who work at newspaper and TV desks,” she said.

She added that Balochistan had lost over 40 journalists who were targeted by extremist organisations.

“A reporter faces less security concerns if he or she files a balanced news story,” she said, adding that sometimes, sensationalism could be created by a sub-editor or copy writer editing the story — this could also create a threat to the reporter’s life.

She said that most journalists started their careers as field reporters without any proper professional training.

Discussing professional training, Ms Ahmed said that every profession in the world needed to train anyone joining the field. “Unfortunately, a large number of people working in the media are actually not trained,” she said.

“Media houses must arrange for their staff to get professional training, particularly on media ethics,” she said.

She urged media houses to create a special space for female journalists.

“Media houses should have a special quota for female students of mass communication so that when they graduate, they can get jobs as sub-editor, reporter or copy writer,” added Ms Ahmed.

Published in Dawn November 24th, 2016