Gender agents to be appointed in key ministries: Sherry

ASSOCIATED PRESS SERVICE

ISLAMABAD : Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman Thursday said the government would appoint “gender agents” in the main ministries to herald a change in attitude on gender related issues. Speaking at the launching ceremony of Rozan’s Munsalik Media Project: Pakistani Aurat Ki Kahani, Media Ki Zubani here, she said these agents would be appointed in the Ministries of Information, Interior and Finance. Under the three-year Munsalik project, journalists would be trained on social issues and special workshops on gender sensitization would be arranged. This project would also focus on students of mass communication and journalism to highlight the importance of social issues.
The Minister said the government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its allies would involve all stakeholders in the law making process on gender sensitization issues.
She said electronic media would have to adopt more responsible approach in reporting events, adding that a race for beepers and breaking news puts extra pressure on the field staff.
“If one channel runs a false news, the reporters of other channels are put under intense pressure to create something to counter that story,” she remarked.
“Unnecessary focus on political news shadows coverage of real issues and problems in our media,” she said. However, she added the government would not enforce any law through PEMRA in this regard.
She suggested that the media itself should device a code of conduct for covering gender related issues.
Sherry Rehman suggested the electronic media to reserve at least 10 per cent total time for public service messages.
The Minister said that media becomes responsible through democratic environment but if the democratic process is not allowed to run, such things do happen.
The Minister said she has come to the seminar not as a Minister but as a person who supports the initiative of the Rozan and added she has struggled along with NGOs and other civil society organizations for rights of the people in the past and would like to do so in future also as it was a continuous process.
She said editors in the newspapers play a key role and decide the editorial priorities of the organizations and advised them to shift focus of news coverage from political to human interest stories. There was a need to change mindset of the society, she added.
Renowned artist Faryal Gohar, journalists including Absar Alam, Ghazi Salahaddin, Narjis Zaidi and representatives of different NGOs attended the ceremony.