PHOTO COURTESY: LOK SUJAG (FACEBOOK PAGE)
LAHORE: “The media plays a pivotal role in projecting and channelising social and political discourse in this day and age,” Tahir Mehdi of Lok Sujag said on Friday.
He was speaking at the launch of Lok Sujag’s Faisalabad and Sahiwal focused news websites at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). “…But the media’s capacity is limited and its coverage and focus rarely venture out of metropolitan areas,” Mehdi said. He said the vast majority of the nation’s population did not reside in these areas and struggled to find a place for themselves in the mainstream narrative. Tauqeer Mustafa of Lok Sujag while the number of internet users had been increasing remarkably, its reach was limited. He said the websites had been made in Urdu to make them more accessible for youngsters who were not well-versed in English. Academic Yaqoob Bangash stressed on this. He said this would play a pivotal role in bridging the divide in society that lay at the heart of the nation’s identity crisis.
Former National College of Arts principal Sajida Vandal said the initiative would represent the nation’s cultural diversity in a befitting manner. “Cultural discourse is key to nation building,” Vandal observed.
Economist Akbar Zaidi said initiatives of this kind could play a significant role in holding local bodies accountable and strengthen democracy. HRCP general secretary IA Rehman stressed the need of taking the progressive agenda to the media and popularising it. He said furthering local pride would remedy the identity crisis bedevilling the nation and play an instrumental role in promoting national development.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2015.
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