|
 It
is the responsibility of the media to ensure that the people had
a chance to have their voices heard, said Aidan Liddle, Head of
Press and Public Affairs Section of British High Commission.
Addressing at the concluding
session of a two-day workshop on Civic Journalism for Effective
Citizenship arranged by Centre for Civic Education, he said the
media should provide a platform for the individuals to voice
their concerns. Aidan-Liddle argued that democracy means
participation of the people. Without participation of the people
there would be no democracy as the means to make people’s lives
better would be missing, he added.
Aniq
Zafar, Matiullah Jan, Amjad Bhatti, Faryal Ali Gohar and
Zafarullah Khan, Executive Director of the CCE Pakistan, were
the resource persons at the workshop. Zafarullah Khan explaining
the motto of the workshop said that every voice has the right to
be heard and should have the means to be heard. He said
immediate problems of the masses were not being mentioned on the
front page of newspapers and headlines of electronic broadcasts.
Stressing the need for civic journalism, he said when there is
rain, there is flooding, destruction of homes and water borne
diseases because of poor civic amenities in every city. Media
should not be a lap-dog of the rulers but should act as a
watchdog of the people’s interest, he added. He announced that
the Centre for Civic Education will start a Civic Journalism
Award from next year which will be awarded on best civic reports
in print and electronic media.
Matiullah Jan, a senior journalist and media analyst, said some
journalists write on elite classes only, international and
national news ones due to the interests of their target
population. He said civic journalism boils down to district
government, which means that the local media (radio, newspaper,
and press clubs) have the most important role to play. Jan said
reporting on civic issue will fosters a relationship of trust
between the citizens and media.
Faryal Ali Gauhar and Amjad Bhatti
spoke on the topic of “communication sparked change.” Amjad
Bhatti said that journalists were community’s catalyst.
Journalists had the responsibility to maintain objectivity and
do not take sides in a conflict, he added. He stressed the
importance of questioning the generic understanding of mass
communication. He said today dominant themes for determining
newsworthiness are fear, conflict, insecurity, and sex. He
described the media’s dominant characteristic as being urban
centric as power and knowledge are concentrated in urban areas.
Faryal Gauhar continued the discussion with a focus on
electronic media. She stated that corporate media expansion had
restricted the space for the voice of people in the media. She
cited that most stories were male centered and only one tenth of
the newspaper space was given to women related news and that too
where the women are objects and passive actors. She described
how females are objectified in society unfairly citing
disturbing personal experiences with story placement in print
media.
She argued that the print and
electronic media was not addressing layers of issues that are
afflicting our society. She reminded the journalists that they
held an important role of forming and influencing opinions.
“Media is a craft, which holds the tools for activating society
around,” she added.
In the group work sessions, the
participating journalists examined shortcomings in people
centric news stories, listed there local civic issues and vowed
to report on those.
At the end of the workshop, all
participants were given a copy of the Constitution of Pakistan,
certificates and souvenirs. |
