Date: June 27-29, 2005
Location: Sadiqabad

Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) organised a 3 Day Journalism Training Workshop at Sadiqabad, District. Rahim Yar Khan, southern Punjab for local journalists and women on 27-29 June 2005 in collaboration of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).

Sadiqabad , located at a distance of 65 kilometers from its district headquarter Rahim Yar Khan is an important agricultural and business town of former Bahalwalpur, state. With a population of over one lakh people, Sadiqabad is a semi rural town but is fast growing into a modern city as a result of a number of development programmes sponsored by the local authorities. The workshop held at the Jinnah Hall of the local Tehsil Council was attended by 26 participants, including six women and the rest being local journalists representing various national, regional and local newspapers and magazines.

Pakistan Press Foundation team was consisted of Mr. Fazal Qureshi, Vice Chairman of PPF , and Mr. Abdul Khalid Shakir, a senior journalist from Rahim Yar Khan. Veteran local journalist Hakim Ghulam Hassan Awan, correspondent of Pakistan Press International, acted as organiser of the workshop. The workshop started with ‘Qirat’. Hakim Ghulam Hassan Awan in his opening remarks thanked PPF for selecting their town for journalism training. He said Sadiqabad is an underdeveloped tehsil of district Rahim Yar Khan and local journalists are in dire need of journalism training.

Mr. Abdul Khaliq Shakir in his address to participants, he stressed that journalists should project real picture of society and focus on coverage of social problems of the poor people. Later, Mr. Fazal Qureshi explained the objectives of Pakistan Press Foundation. He emphasized that PPF has no agenda behind organizing these workshops. The objective of the PPF was to enable journalists especially women to express their opinions through effective writing. He added journalistic writings should focus attention on issues.

After introduction by men and women participants the working sessions began. The first segment began with brainstorming about definition of news. This was followed by explanation of the principles of news writing, the concept of Inverted Pyramid in news writing , the principles of 5 W’s and one H. Every segment was followed by open discussion through questions and answers covering a wide range of subjects relating to news writing.

This was followed by a practical exercise on news writing. The participants were given basic material and asked to write a news item with a proper news lead. Quite a few of the participants did a good job of writing a news lead. Mr. Abdul Khaliq Shakir then started a discussion on principles of news ethics and new values. The participants took part in the discussions and all aspects of journalism ethics including complaints about blackmailing and irresponsible news reporting were discussed threadbare.

The next segment was on article and feature writing. The lecture covered article writing from beginning to end, stag
e by stage, from how to select a subject, how to write a theme sentence to determine the parameters of the subject, how to collect and sort out the material and how to write the article. The lecture emphasized the need for professional preparation of a neat and clean manuscript, the importance of photographs and finally on how to market articles and features in the media.

In the practical exercise that followed, the participants were asked to select a subject, write an article on some issue of their area which could be used for release to the newspapers. Part of the exercise was done as homework. Their output was then discussed in open session and evaluated.

The next segment of the programme was about laws affecting journalists and importance of maintaining reference records on subjects of interest to the writers. In the last segment an open discussion followed. Participants also gave their feedback about the workshop. The participants were given evaluation forms and asked to comment on the quality of the workshop and any suggestions they might have for further improvement. Rana Khursheed Begum said she had learnt many new things from the workshop which had improved her writing skills.. She further said that standard of the training workshop was good. That would help her stepping into profession of article writing.

Miss Asia Haneef said welcomed inclusion of women in the workshop which would help induct local women in the field of journalism. She said this workshop would help her remove flaws of her writing. Dr. Khalida Javed said the workshop had eenabled local women to learn about journalism. She said the training workshop provided awareness and knowledge about journalism and created confidence. Before this she did not know how to write an article for a newspaper.

Mr.Ashfaq Ahmed Khan of Nawai Waqt, Multan said the workshop training was of high level and it helped us learn many new things. The workshop was very useful. Before this workshop he did not have clear picture of what article writing was Syed Junaid Kazmi correspondent Daily Islam said the workshop had helped learn new things which he did not know before.The topics covered in the workshop are necessary for journalists. He said it was first time that he got a chance to write an article for the newspaper.

Later, the certificate distribution ceremony was chaired by Mr. Rana Mohammad Arshad Javed, General Secretary, Sadiqabad Press Club. In his speech Mr. Arshad appreciated PPF for having organized the journalism training workshop in Sadiqabad. He specially welcomed the measure for having included women in the workshop. Highighting the the importance and utility of the workshop, he said as he heared from participants, they were now equipped with new skills and awareness about the techniques and ethics of news and article writing. He also advised journalists to be responsible and accurate in their reporting.

The Chief Guest then distributed certificates among the participants.