ISLAMABAD, Jan 7 (APP):Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Tuesday said digitalization was the biggest challenge for conventional media to compete in the global age of information.
Stressing upon the need of capacity building of journalists in line with the international standards, the SAPM said that access to the new technology was important for journalists, who had to promote the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan about digitalization, paper-free governance and above all e-commerce.
She congratulated the National Press Club (NPC) Islamabad for conducting a skill training workshop for the journalists of twin cities on digitalization and social media. The NPC was a role model for all the press clubs in the country, she said.
Either it was a keyboard or a smartphone, journalists were instrumental in the flow of information linked with their fingers, she observed.
DR Firdous said, in the age of information, technology was being used in both negative and positive ways to shape the future of fast changing world.
She said the power of a journalist would be defused if he or she failed to equip him or herself with the latest technology being used across the globe in the media industry.
It was the government’s responsibility to improve orientation, do capacity building and train the journalists, she added.
She said Prime Minster Imran Khan had approved a project to construct an information center in every press club of Pakistan to fight the challenges, the country was facing in the technology warfare. Such information centres would pave the way of a long term sustainable road-map to conduct regular trainings for journalists, she added.
The SAPM said unlike the previous regime, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was determined to protect fundamental and democratic rights of the people as guaranteed in the Constitution.
The PTI government, she said, inherited ruined infrastructure of press clubs, with plenty of problems of working journalists, however, it worked out a strategy to resolve all the issues being faced by the media industry, but still there was a long way to go.
She said the present government believed in freedom of press and welcoming the criticism from media with an open mind in the larger interest of the people. After 18 years, it announced the 8th Wage Board Award for the journalists and would also ensure its implementation in collaboration with the media outlet owners, she added.
“The present system has to be improved and the problems of working journalists have to be resolved,” she said, adding that in light of the prime minister’s direction, a commission was being constituted to address the issues of media industry and working journalists.
