Pak-Afghan journalists’ programme kicks off today

22 young journalists from Afghanistan and Pakistan will take part in the programme.

To remove misunderstandings between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a fellowship programme for journalists “Understanding the Neighbour” is starting from Friday in Bara Gali.

The programme, being organised by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a German political foundation, in collaboration with the University of Peshawar, Mediothek and The Express Tribune, aims at bringing the two neighbours together and creating a better understanding of each other’s views, said a press release issued by the FES here on Thursday.

A committee has selected 22 journalists from Pakistan and Afghanistan to reflect the diversity of both the countries in a programme which will last five days.

From Pakistan the journalists selected for the programme are: Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Dilawar Jan (The News), Taha Siddiqui and Ayesha Hasan (The Express Tribune), Beenish Javed, Bari Baloch (The Nation), Malik Achakzai (VOA), Haris Bin Aziz (CNBC), Arsalan Bakhtiar (Geo), Sundus Rasheed (CityFM89), Malik Safdar Dawar (TUJ).

In the first phase of the programme, journalists from Afghanistan are traveling to Pakistan to attend workshops, meet with politicians, experts and mediapersons. The journalists from both countries will also work together, to produce articles about AF-Pak topics.

These articles will be published in The Express Tribune. In the second phase, the journalists from Pakistan will travel to Kabul in October where a similar exercise will be done.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2012.