PPF Journalism Skills Development Programme, Abbotabad

Date: April 18 – 20, 2004
Location: Abbotabad, NWFP

Abbotabad is an important city of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). It is located in a beautiful valley, surrounded by forest covered mountains and is a popular resort for tourists. It is known for its well kept military cantonment from the British days. It is also renowned for best schools, colleges and training institutions. The famous Kakul Military Academy is in Abbotabad.

Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) organized a three-day workshop, under its Journalism Skills Development Programme, at Abbotabad from April 18 — 20, 2004. The workshop was held at the Abbotabad Press Club Hall and was attended by 19 local journalists and educated women from the city.

Syed Jaffer Shah, Chief Executive of Sarhard Rural Support Programme (SRSP) inaugurated the workshop. The president of the Abbotabad Press Club, Mr. Rashid Javed, appreciated PPF for choosing Abbotabad for the journalism training workshop. He said participation of women in the workshop will help them to promote their viewpoint in the national media.

The Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) media trainers were, Mr. Fazal Qureshi, Chief Editor, Pakistan Press International (PPI) and Vice Chairperson PPF, and Mr. Rashid Javed, a senior journalist and PPI correspondent in Abbotabad, who acted as local organizer.

Mr. Fazal Qureshi explained the objectives of the programme under which PPF had organized similar workshop
s in a large number of cities in Pakistan. The teaching sessions included lectures about definition of news, rules for news writing, concept of inverted pyramid and principle of five Ws and one H. Each lecture was followed by a free exchange of questions and answers covering a wide range of subjects related to journalism and press freedom.

The proceedings included an exercise on news writing. Participants were given basic material and were asked to write a news story with a proper news lead. The workshop also included lectures on article and feature writing. The lecture emphasized the need for professional manuscript, importance of photographs and marketing articles and features in the media.

A session was devoted to a discussion on ethics and laws of journalism such as laws of defamation and contempt of court. The lecture was followed by an open discussion on the subject. The last lecture of the programme was on importance of maintaining reference records on subjects of interest to the writers.

The closing ceremony was presided over by Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, member Sarhard Assembly. Barrister Javed Abbasi, Naib Nazim of Abbotabad district, was also present on the occasion. Mr. Ghani distributed certificates among the participants. In his brief address the Chief Guest warmly praised the PPF programme and expressed hope that more such programmes will be organized in the region.