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PESHAWAR, Sept 17: The participants of a workshop here were asked to file investigative stories regarding the problems relating to the issues of disadvantaged people and avoid dispatching sensational, biased and insulting news about them in order to enhance their participation in the social and political activities and save them from being traumatised.
The two-day workshop was jointly arranged by Inter Press Communication and South Asia Partnership Pakistan to educate district correspondents on reporting concerning women issues.
On the concluding day of the workshop on Monday, Ms Tasleem Ahmer of an Islamabad-based NGO, Aks, urged the participants to objectively report the issues involving women.
She said women “in our part of the country” were presented as showpiece by all the newspapers which was against the ethics of journalism.
Sunday’s editions of all the newspapers, including the English ones, she added, were all the more disgracing for women.
The working women, she said, were part and parcel of society as they also worked as housewives and took care of their children. According to Tasleem, the Urdu press was more effective because 92 per cent of the readers purchased Urdu dailies against the eight per cent readership of English ones, and said there was a dire need for the Urdu journalists to concentrate on the positive aspects of women problems.
Ms Tasleem was of the view that the newspapers carried out advertisements on front and back pages instead of news, and said her organisation would endeavour hard to make the editors realise the gravity of the situation.
According to her, the newspapers gave much space to crime-related stories and portrayed women as sex symbols which, she added, was evident from the research conducted by Aks last year.
IPC DIRECTOR: Speaking on the topic of women and media, Sheen Farrukh, director of the IPC, expressed concern over the irresponsible reporting by the journalists.
She said the newspapers carried out wrong stories regarding women, and said that both the print and electronic media should not carry out the names or photographs of the rape victims to save them from being disgraced. Women issues, she added, should be highlighted in a positive manner in order to solve their problems and not disgrace them.
A local reporter, Mohammad Riaz, spoke on responsible reporting and media ethics, and urged the participants to be honest toward their profession. He said journalists were eyes and ears of society and they should take extreme care while filing their stories.
Another local reporter, Waseem Ahmad Shah, spoke on role of media in developing democratic culture, and said the working journalists had always raised voice against disruption of a democratic dispensation and imposition of martial law. He urged upon the participants to highlight the issues of politically disadvantaged groups, including women, minorities and tribal people.
Prof Shahjehan spoke about the ideal reporting, and presented academic point of view regarding journalism.
