PPF Journalism Training Workshop, Kasur Punjab

Date: April 25, 2005
Location: Kasur

Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) organised a Journalism Training Workshop for local journalists and women at Kasur, Punjab from 25to 27 April 2005.

Kasur is a town near the Indian border, located at a distance of 160 kilometres from Lahore. With a population of over five lakh people, Kasur is an important business city and has a number of first class educational institutions for men and women. Kasur is famous for being the birth place of Melody Queen Noor Jahan and famous Saint-Poet Buleh Shah. Ganda Singh Wala is the Indian border located only 17 kilometres from Kasur.

The border is an important tourist attraction. Hundreds of men, women and children visit the border and witness the change of guard ceremony, conducted by the Pakistani and Indian troops.

The journalism training workshop was held at the Municipal Library, Baldia Chowk and was attended by 22 participants, among whom 11 women were college teachers, social workers and other educated women while 11 men were from national, regional and local newspapers and magazines.

The PPF instructors’ team consisted of Mr.Fazal Qureshi, Vice Chairman PPF. Mr. Tariq Mahmood Jutt correspondent PPI in Kasur, who was the local organizer of the program. Senior local journalist Mr.Saleem-ur-Rehman welcomed the instructors and thanked PPF for organising the workshop at Kasur.

In his opening comments Mr.Fazal Qureshi remarked about the strategy of PPF and the number of workshops they have organized all over Pakistan. He said PPF will continue to hold similar workshops in the most far flung and ill-informed pasts of Pakistan

After introduction of participants, the working sessions began with the explanation of definition of news. This was followed by the principles of news writing and the Inverted Pyramid in news writing. This was followed by open discussion with questions and answers covering a wide range of subjects related to news writing.

Next was the discussion on principles of news ethics and new values. The participants discussed aspects of journalism ethics including complaints about blackmailing and irresponsible news reporting.

The next segment was on art
icle and feature writing. The lecture stressed onm the need for professional preparation of a proper manuscript, the importance of photographs and finally on how to market articles and features in the media.

In a practical exercise, 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. The output was then discussed in open session and evaluated. The participants were given home assignment to write an article on the subject which they had selected earlier.

The article written by the participants were presented and discussed. Later, the importance of maintaining reference records on subjects of interest to the writers. An open discussion followed in which participants gave their feedback on the workshop.

Ms Nafeesa, a teacher Kasur Public School said that many ambiguities were removed by this workshop as the lectures conducted were well-prepared and useful and she can now pen down different topics using the information she obtained from this workshop.

Ms. Zahida Firdous, Lecturer, Government Degree College for Women, Kasur, said that topics in the workshop were related to the day-today challenges faced by the journalists. The brevity and balance in the subjects were appreciable. This workshop has provided a greater learning ground for columnists and journalists.

Mohammad Afzal Ansari, lecturer said that the workshop should have been held in the evening with reduced hours and the duration be elongated for seven days.

Mr. Mohammad Mushtaq, reporter Daily Aftab said that the lectures were clear and very informative. These kind of workshops must be held more than once or they will lose their purpose. He will try to utilize the knowledge gathered in this workshop, for many mediums.

The closing session was presided over by Professor Nasreen Khalid Bhatti, Principal, Government Degree College for Women, Kasur who distributed the certificates to the participants. In her speech Prof. Nasreen appreciated PPF and welcomed the measure for including women in the workshop. The Chief Guest then distributed certificates among the participants.