Experts say free media essential for country’s development

The role of the media in poverty alleviation and promotion of social justice was discussed on Monday on the inaugural day of a two-day conference organised by the Bahria University Karachi Campus in collaboration with the Association of Media & Communication Academic Professionals (AMCAP) on Monday.

Addressing the inaugural session, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani said such conferences were essential in providing a useful platform to key stakeholders to share knowledge, research and experiences to promote healthy and productive discussions to achieve the common goal of a better Pakistan.

Author and former federal minister Javed Jabbar said the media was a very powerful medium and should be used in a right manner. He was of the view that the role of media could not be ignored in the national development but the media’s role solely depended on freedom, access to information and freedom of speech.

He said if the media had easy access to information, the government policies would be in the right direction. There would be transparency in all the development projects, he added.

Journalist Mazhar Abbas said the media had always played a positive role against dictatorship. It should not be criticised just because it exposed the corruption of political leaders and unconstitutional acts of dictators, he remarked, adding that unluckily, not only dictators but the democratic governments also made several laws to control the media and journalist communities.

Due to such laws, the media suffered in the past seventy years, Abbas said, adding that it was the basic job of journalists to report whatever was happening, be it lawlessness or development.

Other key speakers at the inaugural session included Bahria University Rector Vice Admiral Kaleem Shoukat, media and communications scholar Dr Nico Carpentier and AMCAP President Prof Dr Bushra Hameedur Rehman.

The first day also included working sessions where issues of national importance were discussed, such as the role of the media in bringing social development initiatives to grassroots level and the emergence of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as a game-changing initiative.

These sessions were attended by prominent scholars, including foreign academic Dr Pille Pruulmann Vangerfeldt. Numerous research papers by academics from universities across Pakistan were also presented on the first day of the conference.

The conference will conclude today (Tuesday). The programme on the concluding day includes working sessions on portrayal of gender equality and social injustice in media, importance of information technology as a driving force for developing countries, significance of media ethics in the reporting of economic crisis and the role of media education in providing quality human resource.

The closing ceremony of the conference which will be attended by Sindh Governor Sindh Imran Ismail as the chief guest. Other key speakers in the ceremony will include journalists Ghazi Salahuddin and Fahd Hussain.

Lifetime achievement awards will also be conferred on prominent media scholars for their contribution to academia and the media industry.