News
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Denmark to help in capacity building of Pakistani mediaISLAMABAD: The Danish Ambassador to Pakistan, Uffe Wolffhechel, met a group of leading editors and bureau chiefs from various Pakistani media groups on Tuesday and discussed with them needs of media industry in Pakistan.
The consultative meeting was organised by the Danish Embassy as part of its recent launch of the Danish International Development Agency, DANIDA in Pakistan, which will be focusing on supporting media development initiatives. The meeting was hosted by the ambassador, and primarily included discussions on the needs of media in view of increasing violence against journalists and the need for analytical and investigative journalism.
Wolffhechel shared with the audience that Denmark believed that the media was one of the most important pillars in the structure of democracy, and that it should be given due importance.
In addition to this, he also stated that this also required that media’s workforce in Pakistan was equipped with analytical skills in order to deal with important issues in society and investigate them as part of a responsibility towards the people of Pakistan. The ambassador shared that Denmark would be supporting various initiatives for building capacity of media in Pakistan, which would include safety trainings for journalists, support to radio stations in Northern Areas through training and equipment, educational radio programmes and international training tours.
He said, “We are, in particular, very interested in encouraging more women in media, so that they can play an equal role in developing this industry based on unbiased and factual information.” “This will surely also support in addressing gender based issues, which unfortunately are not very prominent in today’s media,” he added.
“We will also be working closely with the universities across Pakistan to facilitate emergence of media as an important field,” he said, adding, “We will support the establishment of a Women Wing at the Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), so that female journalists are facilitated both legally and professionally and thereby secure their legal rights.” The $28 million Danish development programme framework consists of three major components.
The first component involves stabilization and early recovery of border areas with Afghanistan, which is a multilateral channel that will support the government of Pakistan in restoring infrastructure, services and livelihoods in the country’s conflict-affected border areas.
Under this component, DANIDA has granted UNICEF Pakistan $11 million to bolster UNICEF’s efforts to educate children affected by the crisis in KP and FATA. To further support development and democratic process in the Northern Areas, the government of Denmark has pledged $7 million to the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), which will be working for the restoration of damaged infrastructure and disrupted services in KP, Balochistan and FATA.
Denmark was one of the first nations to pledge to the MDTF – a World Bank administered fund. The second component of the framework programme, $7 million, is for support to the civil society, where DANIDA, in joint collaboration with local partners, will support initiatives that work towards developing good governance, human rights and gender equality.
Identifying media as one of the most important tools in educating on democracy and human rights, almost 50 percent of the civil society programmes focus on media development initiatives, which, in particular, focus on enhancing investigative journalism in Pakistan, promote conflict resolution through media and mainstreaming of gender. The third component carries overall focus on security and justice sector reforms. Under this component, Denmark has committed $2.2 million to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for one year. The Danish contribution will be utilised with the aim to improve border control and criminal justice system in Pakistan. pr
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk