960421

Azfar lauds press for

role in establishing

democracy in country

WIRASAT HUSSNAIN

KARACHI: Governor Sindh Kamaluddin Azfar, has lauded the role of the national press it has played in uprooting the authoritarian rule and establishing democracy in the country.

He was performing the opening ceremony of a five-day training/workshop for journalists on 'Advanced Journalism and Dynamic News Editing' on Sunday at a local hotel under the auspices of Press Foundation of Pakistan.

The Governor said that the role of the press during the dictatorial period of General Zia-ul-Haq, if analysed, would show the amount of courage and objectivity it employed in the coverage of news and recording of events. The press, he said, had a defined sense of direction in those day, and it had continued the same to date. It had no fear of oppressive tactics and worked hard to keep people informed about everything which merited merit.

He said: "The press is now absolutely free and permitted to write what it finds true and in the interest of the common man. It should feel its responsibilities and lend support to the cause of democracy, justice, and fairplay".

Azfar said that the training of mediamen should be a continuous activity so that their expertise could be developed and maintained strictly in accordance with the latest trends in the field of journalism.

On the subject of human resource development, he said he had noticed that the mass media managers were getting more quality conscious about the human resources available in the market for the specialised job in the field of mass communication.

The governor suggested that such training programmes should be organised frequently and the senior journalists should pass on their knowledge to those who were young and new in the profession.

Nisar Memon, Country General Manager of the IBM and a former minister of information in the Moin Qureshi's interim government, talking to the participants of the workshop said that there was urgent need to switch over to the latest in the communication technology.

He said the world was moving fast and "if we remained stuck to the centuries old system of journalism we are likely to fail in keeping people properly informed". It would be a great disservice to the nation, he added.

Owais Aslam Ali, Chairman of the Press Foundation, Fazal Qureshi, Managing Director of the PPI, and the trainer, Neville Stack, of the Commonwealth Union of Journalist, also spoke on the occasion.