Consultation held to identify media priorities

Islamabad:To identify media development priorities, the Unesco organised stakeholder consultation on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday.

The consultation was organised in collaboration with European Union Delegation to Pakistan, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Embassy of Sweden in Pakistan, High Commission of Canada in Pakistan, and Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

More than 50 participants from civil society, government agencies, parliamentarians, digital media professionals, academia, international organizations, and missions participated in the event.

Under this year’s global theme of World Press Freedom Day “Shaping a Future of Rights” - Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights diverse group of experts focused on identifying priorities for media development. It is a follow up of recent research that took place in Pakistan based on Unesco’s global tool Media Development Indicators developed to assess media landscape in countries.

During the event, media as a fundamental right, the significance of its freedom and media ethics, sustainability, and financial viability and themes such as disinformation, hate speech online especially in relation to election reporting were also discussed in detail.

The inaugural panel discussion highlighted the importance of safeguarding press freedom and promoting media diversity. Unesco Director and Representative, Youssef Filali - Meknassi highlighted Unesco’s significant role in leading the debate to ensure that media freedom remains intact despite growing challenges such as disinformation or hate speech.

Leslie Scanlon, High Commissioner reaffirmed Canada’s unwavering support for media freedom globally highlighting the role of media as a cornerstone of a robust democracy.

During the expert panel discussion titled “Lessons learned from media development indicators and ensuring sustainability", the participants shared commitment to improve the media sector especially in dealing with generating revenues, countering disinformation and online hate speech to restore the credibility of information and quality of reporting.

Zafar Abbas, editor DAWN and convenor of editors’ safety forum highlighted the need for sustainability in media for more independent and responsible reporting. Mahim Maher, convenor of Pakistan Digital Editors Alliance suggested to invest more in digital platforms to create a credible news platform. Haroon Rashid, Managing Editor, Independent Urdu, and Jahanzaib Haque Digital Strategist DAWN proposed to make newsrooms more economically sound and sustainable, and ensuring and sharing best practices. The session was moderated by Asad Beg, Media Matters for Democracy.

Gharida Farooqi moderated the panel “Implementing Democratic Safeguards in the Media Space”. Parliamentary Standing Committee Chair Naz Baloch acknowledged the challenges facing the media industry, especially by the women journalists and the need to adapt to rapidly changing technologies.

The panel consisted of Afzal Butt (PFUJ) who also highlighted the need the urgency to implement the newly enacted law for journalists. Asad Beg, co-founder Media Matters for Democracy talked reducing the layers of legislations and shape holistic policies for future.