German, French envoys mark Women’s Day with Pakistani journalists

Islamabad :As part of the International Women's Day celebrations, German Ambassador Bernhard Schlagheck and French Ambassador Dr. Marc Barety jointly hosted a lunch for Pakistani women journalists at the German Embassy on Monday.

The ambassadors said the gathering offered an occasion to discuss the vital role that journalism played in every democratic society and to exchange views on challenges it faced at the moment.

They added that those challenges ranged from corporate transformation processes, media regulations to guaranteeing safe, ethical and independent journalism. The ambassadors said the role of women in society was essential — not only from a social but also from an economic point of view.

According to them, like in other countries of the world, the gender gap in Pakistan should be reduced and eventually bridged. However, today's meeting again demonstrated that Pakistan has many senior female journalists as well as promising young talents in its media sector who will surely be an inspiration for other women.

Among the guests were renowned female journalists including some of the 2019 Agahi laureates, recognized in fields like media ethics, human rights, entrepreneurship, identity and sports reporting as well as the founder and president of Agahi Foundation, a non-profit organisation aimed at encouraging investigative and independent journalism in Pakistan.

The slogan of International Women's Day 2020 is 'I am Generation Equality: Realising Women's Rights'. It is aligned with UN Women's new multi-generational campaign, Generation Equality, which marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration on Women and Platform for Action. To pave the way forward for the gender equality commitments made in Beijing in 1995, the Generation Equality Forum convened by UN Women will be organised on May 7 and 8 in Mexico and will culminate in Paris from July 7 to 10, 2020.