GUJRAT: Veteran journalist and media historian, Dr Mehdi Hasan says bad journalism is distorting the history of the country and there is urgent need to promote honest and impartial reporting.

He was addressing the concluding session of a two-day interactive training workshop for journalists, “Local Journalism in National Perspective – Capability, Training, Needs and Demands,” organised by UoG’s Centre for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) in collaboration with Gujrat Press Club.

“Distortion of facts by a section of media is distorting our history,” he said, adding that all the citizens of Pakistan have equal rights whatever religions they belonged to.

Dr Hasan also emphasized the need for a code of ethics for the electronic media.

Journalists Altaf Hassan Qureshi, Imran Khan, Iram Ghani, Usman Raza and head of Communication Studies at the Punjab University Dr Waqar Malik also spoke. At the end of the workshop, local journalists were awarded certificates of participation issued by UoG.

On the first day of training, anchorperson Imran Khan, internationally acclaimed reporter Sherin Zada from Swat and Malik Nadim Zaeem, executive producer of a news channel, discussed various aspects of modern journalism.

UoG Registrar Dr Tahir Aqil, Dr Professor Zahid Yousaf, head of the CMCS, Abdul Sattar Mirza, president of Gujrat Press Club, and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2015

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