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03 June, 2012

3rd Three days International Conference On "MEDIA AND AGENDA " arranged by Department Of Mass Communication Federal Urdu University Karachi .

A three-day international seminar on Media Agenda hailed the success of private television channels in Pakistan, but cautioned for these channels to review their agenda and to coordinate with each other to formulate a fresh code of ethics.

The seminar was organized by the mass communication department of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST), and held at the Karachi Arts Council.A number of speakers reminded the media of its obligation to convey facts without any distortion, and for news to be disseminated in a balanced and objective manner.Dr Mubarak Ali regretted that despite being a source of information, the media was unable to develop a sensitive and pluralist attitude in the public. “An overabundance of news of violence and aggression in society is desensitizing people, who now take these things as a matter of everyday routine.”
Dr Ali believes that the views expressed in the mass media are an aggregate of the views collectively supported by the society in the country.

Chief executive of Dawn, Hameed Haroon, gave a practical view of the situation. “Media organizations do have agendas, but it would be positive if these agendas are drawn to favor the role of laws and in support of public rights.”

“It would be unrealistic to think that large media organizations can run purely on charity: financial survival and turning a profit is a compulsory part of the media business. But this should be exercised with social responsibility,” he added.

Meanwhile, Secretary General Pakistan Arts Council, Karachi, Ejaz Farooqui, said that government should not interfere with the media but that, conversely, journalists should also work within their constitutional limits and should not threaten the state.

“Conferences like this one help us clear the doubts in our minds. The media’s ‘agenda’ should be based on facts and figures, decision making should be left to the public itself,” he noted.Veteran journalist IA Rehman, who presided over the second session, said that it was ‘unfortunate’ that most of the owners of newspapers also edit their newspapers as well.Meanwhile, Dr Syed Jafar from Pakistan Area Study Center, University of Karachi, was of the belief that the media had become an industry which was used for promoting a specific ideology on both national and international levels.“The media is run by advertising agencies and politicians are being promoted by the media. Though the media is providing people with information, there should be a difference between information and knowledge.”

Tahir Najmi, Editor Daily Express, Karachi, Dr Jabbar Khatak, Editor of Daily Awami Awaz, Ahmed Shah, President of Pakistan Arts Council-Karachi, Harris Khaleeq, a social and political activist, Dr Seemi Naghmana Tahir, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Abdul Haq Campus of FFUAST and Dr Tausif Ahmed Khan, Chairman of the Department of Mass Communication, FUUAST, also spoke at the seminar.The event was sponsored by the Higher Education Commission, the Awaaz Institute of Media Sciences, the Pakistan Arts Council-Karachi, PIA, the Karachi Press Club and the government of Sindh.