KARACHI: Powerful, personal stories from media persons during panel discussions stole the show on the second and concluding day of the National Media Conference (NMC)organised by the Centre for Excellence in Journalism at the Institute of Business Administration’s (CEJ-IBA) city campus here on Friday.

The panel discussion about ‘Women in the media’ moderated by Elisa Tinsley of ICFJ had former PTV journalist Tanzeela Mazhar speak about harassment and discrimination of women by male colleagues. “I had been covering gender issues, speaking to victims of abuse but I never knew then that I would be facing it all myself. When I tried talking about it, I was told to remain silent or I risked bringing myself to disrepute. Well, it happened anyway when the Indian media picked up my case,” she said adding that she was now jobless and facing the repercussions of speaking up.

Imran Shirvanee, journalist and professor, said that women in the media were usually hired for their looks and were also paid less than men.

Farzana Ali, bureau chief of Aaj TV in Peshawar, said that women who wanted to work in the media in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa usually joined radio stations as they did not like to show their faces. “But there is no harm there,” she said, “because radio is more accessible there, especially in the rural areas.”

Najia Ashar of Aaj TV said that she was hoping for different things for herself on the job when she returned after spending a year at Stanford on a journalism fellowship. “But the media house I worked for back then still wanted me to mindlessly read from the prompter like before. I was left at a crossroads. I had to make my decision of whether to stay or go,” she said.

Razeshta Sethna, an assistant editor with Dawn, said that she had seen women reporters do better than male reporters in the field.

Having worked for print as well as the electronic media, Ms Sethna said that it was true that most news channels hired women for their looks. “I was also told to read from the prompter until I pointed out that many of the things written there were factually wrong. Once, it was also suggested to me to smile more so that my lipstick won’t crack.

The next panel discussion on the ‘Niche of regional media’, moderated by journalist Zahra Abid, looked into why regional stories were not being given prominence.

Mazher Arif of the Society for Alternative Media and Research said that only those stories that involved the state found space, not any human-interest stories.

Lala Hassan of Pakistan Press Foundation said that consumerism dominated the media.

The third panel discussion moderated by Mubashir Zaidi of DawnNews was about ‘Reporting in conflict areas’.

“When reporting from conflict zones such as those in Afghanistan, there are times when you don’t even know who’s fighting who,” said Afghanistan-based photojournalist Massoud Hossaini.

Dilrukshi Handunnetti, a journalist from Sri Lanka, said that they covered the conflict in Sri Lanka for some 27 years. “We got so used to doing that, now we don’t know how to cover post-war Sri Lanka.”

Veteran journalist M. Ziauddin in conversation with Wajid Ali Syed of Geo News revealed many things such as the uncompromising behaviour of strong editors and newspaper owners who trusted them to do their job their way such as Mahmoud Haroon of Dawn, who despite serving as governor gave his editor Ahmad Ali Khan the freedom to treat all government news the way he felt was right.

In conclusion, former federal minister Javed Jabbar said the conference was a tribute to the courage and sacrifice of journalists.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2017