Justice, Harmony Guarantees Peace: Experts Opine At IBA Conference

In her introductory remarks to kick-off the two-day media conferebce, IBA's Director Ms Amber Rahim Shamsi said without political satire and freedom of speech and quality journalism, the world has become a dangerous place to live

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jun, 2022 ) :In her introductory remarks to kick-off the two-day media conferebce, IBA's Director Ms Amber Rahim Shamsi said without political satire and freedom of speech and quality journalism, the world has become a dangerous place to live.

" Peace isn't just the absence of conflict, it's conditions where justice, equity, and harmony can flourish. Journalists don't broker peace that's the job of the politicians and frankly they're not doing a great job of settling among disputes themselves journalists help those seeking justice, and highlight inequity," she said.

Meanwhile, social media had turbo-charged the politics of conflict and populism. We live in a world where heroes were easy to manufacture and villains even easier to vilify in social media.

Besides, she questioned , why we promote harmony when polarization gets the access to the power and fame, the clicks and ratings. That is one of the many questions we can find an answer at this conference. Also another fundamental question was, why do we still need journalism when we could not even assume that people learn about the fast changing world through good journalism.

The first day kicked off with a powerful session titled "do we need journalism?" Moderated by journalist Shahzeb Jillani, the powerhouse panel which included Lok Sujag's Chief Editor Badar Alam, BBC's Zeeshan Haider and Geo's Benazir Shah.

The panel discussed the grim reality of the state of journalism in Pakistan and how important it is for the country now and in the future.

Haider said that it wasn't a question about creditability but trust. "A user is now basing news preference on if they like/dislike the person sharing the news (which is essentially their opinion). Verification of news or fact is secondary for them," he said.

For Geo's Benazir Shah while journalism is important and needed the quality of what you read in the newspapers had gone down. The problem with consuming news on social media was the doubt about its authenticity.

She said there was also a misconception between a journalist and reporter. A reporter provides information and a journalist would provide it in context.

Badar Alam said journalism did not exist in a vacuum.

" Conflict is essential for what we do. The conflict Pakistan is facing right now is not being resolved in a democratic way and so journalism cannot survive in an undemocratic atmosphere," he opined.

The second session, Foes and Friends: Media Laws and Regulations. The panelists were Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Musadik Malik, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, senior journalist Hamid Mir and lawyer Zainab Janjua. The session was moderated by prime tv anchor and journalist Maria Memon.

Third session of the day, Hasna Mana Hai, the panel had everyone laughing with their witty one liners and stories.

The panel which included journalist and filmmaker Beena Sarwar, producer Misbah Shafique and Joyland director Saim Sadiq discussed cross cultural content, the need to collaborate and why culture exchange is important,