PESHAWAR, May 25: A seminar on Saturday underlined the need for educating the political parties on conflict reporting, hard news and party propaganda, constraint of newspaper owners, press freedom and rights of press workers.

The seminar on ‘Media and Political Activists’ was organized by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam for its district information secretaries here at Darul Aloom Sarhad.

DAS caretaker Sahibzada Khalid Ahmed Binori, JUI’s provincial information secretary Abdul Jalil Jan, journalists Fareedullah Khan from Ausaf, M. Riaz of Nawa-i-Waqt, and Ghaffar Beg of Online participated in the seminar.

The journalists said there was a clear difference in a news report and party propaganda. Every statement issued by a political party or a leader cannot be taken as a news item, they added.

“It is an exclusive right of a newspaper to carry a statement on its merit. Political

parties must educate their workers about the working of newspapers and news reports and party statements,” they emphasized.

Newspapers mainly highlight collective problems of citizens and if political parties want to get published their statements they must relate them to people’s problems, they pointed out.

They said that newspaper establishments had become a separate industry which, obviously, emphasized on profit.

When a newspaper received an advertisement late in the night, it would replace the news item with the ad, they added.

They said that every newsman had a right to have his own political views, but he should not work as an activist of a political party or a pressure group.

A journalist must maintain his impartiality and credibility among the masses, the speakers added.