STAFF REPORT ISB: Academicians, journalists and development sector professionals, students debated and discussed safety and security of journalists, the psychological effect of medias exposure debated and discussed at a town hall dialogue organised by AGAHI and UNESCO, Pakistan here. Purpose of the programme was to highlight and identify the need to develop editorial space for education journalism.
Puruesh Chaudhary, founder and president, AGAHI, while opening the discussion forum, encouraged the stakeholders to review policy gaps and devise sustainable interventions that enable the citizenry of Pakistan to make decisions that improve the quality of not only their lives but also those which empower the society to move forward.
Vibeke Jensen, UNESCO representative/director, said that empowerment of people through Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is an important pre-requisite for fostering equitable access to information and knowledge.
She mentioned that UNESCOs strategy brings together the two fields, Information Literacy and Media Literacy, as a combined set of competencies, knowledge, skills and attitude, necessary for life and work today.
“Education plays a catalytic role towards human development, both at the individual as well as at the societal level,” said Dr Abdul Siraj, head of Mass Communications Department of AIOU, Islamabad. The issue of safety and security of journalists in Pakistan with respect to ethical dimension was explored in the third session.