President seeks media, society’s role in nation building

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday urged the media and the society to play their due role for nation’s moral building along with economic development of the country.

“All the indicators are in place to herald that Pakistan will achieve moral stability. The way we hosted millions of Afghan refugees and handled the terrorism, manifests that Pakistan’s moral fiber is very strong,” he remarked while addressing an award distribution ceremony held to recognise the contribution of the television channels in creating awareness through public service messages.

The ceremony was also attended by First Lady Samina Arif Alvi, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Chairman Pemra Mirza Salim Baig, renowned news anchors, representatives of journalists unions and senior journalists.

The president conferred first award to ARY Media Group for allocating 7,560 minutes during the first quarter (January to March 2019) for public service messaging, second award to Dawn Media Group for spending 7,440 minutes and third award to GNN News for allocating 6,660 minutes for the cause.

President Alvi told the gathering that the media owed responsibility to reform the nation by dedicating more time for public service messaging on health, human rights, water conservation and other social issues. He said even in their programmes focused at arts, writings and dramas, the media should inculcate the aspects of nation building.

He said it was not mere the duty of the government or Prime Minister Imran Khan rather it was everyone’s responsibility to reform the nation using every medium. He said the television channels were equipped with the biggest tool for national reformation which they should utilise to create awareness on stunted growth, malnutrition, breastfeeding, cleanliness, women rights in inheritance and water conservation.

Earlier, addressing the ceremony, SAPM Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan thanked the

president for introducing a mechanism to reward the media outlets for their reformative role.

Highlighting the vitality of the public service messages, she said such contents also proved to be an effective tool to change the life of the common man. She said with the coordination of the media owners, the government desired to promote the trend of public service messaging as the country lacked such a system in the past.

However, she said under the law, the segment of public service messaging had been made part of media’s responsibility but it could not be enforced effectively. But this was being achieved after the president took special interest and engaged with the media owners on the subject.

Reiterating the government’s commitment to protect the fundamental rights of freedom of speech, she said it was also essential to ensure its positive utilisation for societal development as per the vision of President Alvi. She said keeping in view its vitality the Information Ministry had also established a social media cell. However, she assured to address the gaps between the laws of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority and use of social media.

Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan told the ceremony that after 18 years, the ministry had announced the Eighth Wage Board Award to protect the rights of the journalists, with the coordination of the media owners. She said the ministry would play a role of a bridge to create harmonious relations between the employees and employers of the media industry.

Chairman Pemra Salim Baig said the credit for this initiative of Channel of the Quarter Award went to President Alvi who had directed to shortlist the television channels allocating maximum time for public service messaging.

He said the Pakistan’s media regulatory framework had been formulated at par with those of the developed world. He said unfortunately, amidst the race of breaking news, Pemra had received huge number of complaints regarding fake news and hate speech, for what the media had been advised to introduce a self-regulatory system besides introducing a delayed-live mechanism.