ISLAMABAD: Five largest press clubs of Pakistan joined together to launch a new concerted plan involving establishing Safety Hubs for the country’s beleaguered media practitioners.
The ceremony was held in Islamabad Press Club on November 5, the initiative is powered by International Media Support.
The collective membership of these press clubs represents over half of Pakistan’s community of 18,000 working journalists, making this one of the largest programs ever engaging media practitioners in the country.
Presidents and secretaries general of the Karachi Press Club, Lahore Press Club, National Press Club, Peshawar Press Club, Quetta Press Club as well as the Dera Ismail Khan Press Club attended the inception meeting of the new program.
The programme was managed by Freedom Network [FN], Pakistan’s first media watchdog organization.
FN is supported by International Media Support (www.mediaspport.org) for this Safety Hubs Project under a program financed by the Government of Norway.
Each of the six press clubs agreed to establish journalist safety resource hubs at their premises through technical assistance provided by Freedom Network. Under the program, among other things the Safety Hubs will improve reporting, documentation and analysis of threats and attacks against journalists and media houses as a means of improving response and assistance mechanisms for journalists in distress.
Speaking on the occasion, Morten Ostervang, the manager for IMS programs in South Asia, said this new program is expected to strengthen Pakistani efforts, particularly those by the community of media practitioners, to strengthen threat response.
While pointing out that the UN Plan of Action against Impunity and Issues of Journalists’ Safety, launched in 2012, which includes Pakistan as one of the five pilot countries for its implementation, Ostervang said the issue of growing attacks against media and impunity of crimes against them is not unique to Pakistan but also in the world. “How Pakistan responds to the threats and impunity, perhaps with initiatives such as Safety Hubs, will likely offer lessons for other countries in the world to improve their response mechanisms,” he said.
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