ISLAMABAD, Nov 26 (APP): Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Friday said that effective presentation of state narrative was vital to win modern-era wars.
Addressing the orientation session held here for the newly inducted Human Resource (HR) staff under digitalization of Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), he said the modern times’ wars required presentation of opinion in an effective way.
He asked APP to change the existing style of story writing and interest must be created in it so that it could be marketed more effectively.
He said that the APP should become commercially viable by becoming self-sufficient. The theory of the 1970s was no longer viable to run the organization on government grants, he said.
He said that the government wanted to make APP a digital news agency in the style of international news organizations like Reuters and AFP.
The minister congratulated the new employees recruited in APP and expressed the hope that they would add new colours in the story writing style of the official news agency.
He said morality has changed now compared to the past when powerful countries used to occupy the weak countries.
Narrating an example, he said East India Company of the United Kingdom had occupied India and looted its wealth without any remorse. The moralities were changed after World War II, he remarked.
The minister said the United States of America had conquered Afghanistan within three hours but could not achieve the objective of the war afterwards following the change in the definition of victory. He said since 1950, no country had annexed any country after conquering it.
About his digitalization plan of state media, the minister said he supervised the PTI media team since 2015 and felt that the state media was far behind the PTI in social media due to capacity issues.
After assuming charge as Minister for Information and Broadcasting in 2018, he said he had planned to digitalize the state media. Fawad said his dream was materialized during his second stint as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
He said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan recruitment was being done on merit, as the PTI regime wanted to create a system based on transparency.
Minister appreciated the hard work and efforts of Managing Director APP Mubashir Hassan and his team for their tireless efforts to make the vision of the present government a reality.
Tests were conducted through the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) for recruitment under this scheme.
Highly skilled professionals conducted interviews of the successful candidates and also conducted audio and video recordings of the interviews of the candidates to make the recruitment process transparent.
For the first time, talented people were recruited for various positions like researchers, social media content writers, graphic designers keeping in view the requirements of digital media.
A presentation on the digitization of APP was also given on the occasion which highlighted the role of APP in the field of journalism and the efforts being made to adapt it to the requirements of modern times. Under the Rs. 786.79 million digitalization project, modern studios would be set up in different cities, for wider news coverage..
A total of 1,553 applications were received for induction in different posts of digitalization of the project of APPC. As many as 703 candidates were shortlisted and ultimately 43 candidates were selected after a transparent and merit-based process of recruitment.
Managing Director APP Mobashir Hasan, Executive Director Syeda Adeela Rubab Kazmi, Director General of Information Services Academy Saeed Javed and senior officials of the APP were also present.
The minister also distributed service cards among the employees recruited for the APP’s digitization project.
