KARACHI, Aug 30: A five-day advanced journalism training workshop, which was jointly organized by UNESCO and the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) and was attended by women from across the country, concluded here on Friday, with a call by Director UNESCO Ms Ingeborg Breines for providing equal opportunities to men and women in Pakistan.

Speaking after the distribution of certificates among the participants at a local hotel, the director highlighted the role of women and urged them to acquire information and share it with fellow women of the country.

She felt women have the potential to bring about change in society. UNESCO, she pointed out, was helping the government to educate both men and women through the sharing of knowledge.

She spoke of official social indicators of Pakistan, and said that the top priority of UNESCO was to help the government in providing free primary education in the country, particularly to girls.

The Islamabad-based UNESCO director complemented the PPF for successfully organizing nine workshops to train women in advanced journalism in various cities of the country.

Earlier, Owais Aslam Ali, Secretary General PPF, spoke of the latest developments in the news media, including acquiring knowledge through the internet. He briefed the participants on news making, ethics of news writing, feature writing and practical exercise of article writing.

The object of the workshop was to empower women to express their views through articles and features in order to have an impact on national policies, especially those affecting women, such as health, education and human rights.

Ms Samina Ishaq, Director PPF, said that the PPF has been holding workshops all over the country since 1992 on various issues, and the latest in the series dealt with advanced journalism training for women.

Fazal Qureshi, Chief Editor PPI news agency, said the advanced journalism training workshops for women were meant to impart upon them the skills to write articles on various issues and enable rural women to become journalists.—PPI