PESHAWAR, July 4: A two-day training workshop for a group of journalists from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and the NWFP, entitled ‘Advanced training workshop for journalists on human rights’ commenced here on Friday.

The workshop has been been sponsored by Network, a non-governmental organization (NGO) working for the protection of the rights of consumers.

Making a presentation on human rights Nadeem Iqbal, a journalist from Islamabad, said that in light of international covenants and conventions human rights violations were no longer local issues.

These were global issues and needed to be given proper coverage by the print media, he said.

He added that with the multinationals dominating the global economic scene, state governments were fast becoming irrelevant and once the World Trade Organization’s agreement took effect from January 1, 2005 governments would further lose significance.

Journalist Mehmood Zaman also spoke on the occasion and said that despite difficult working conditions a lot of good work was being done by Pakistani journalists to dig out facts pertaining to stories of human rights violations.

Both journalists were of the view that the print media, particularly the vernacular press, were required to play an important role to create awareness among the masses about their rights and duties.

A senior representative of Network Ayaz Kiyani explained the aims and objectives of the organization to the group of journalists.