Press Release - Role of Media in Development

KARACHI, February 21, 2006: Former Federal Minister for Information Javed Jabbar Tuesday underlined the need to improve the image of Pakistan internationally, for this purpose; he suggested setting up of Pakistani Cultural Centres in at least 10 important cities of the world, where various cultural activities are held regularly to promote Pakistani image.

Javed Jabbar, who is Chairman of Baanhn Beli and Vice President of IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Pakistan was delivering a talk on “Role of Media in Development,” organized by NGO Resource Centre under its Development Communication programme. A number of representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and media attended the function.

Javed Jabbar explained the nature of development sector and role of media in projecting various development activities. He described the types of NGOs, including voluntary work, a mix of volunteers and full time professionals, a mix of volunteers and part time professionals, proprietor-led NGO, government sponsored NGO (like National Rural Support Programme) and Public Interest Organizations (PIOs).

He asked the representatives of NGOs to study nature of media. The media cannot be relied on any issue, for this purpose he underlined the need to use experience and observation for reaching a truth. There is a lot of importance of field work, so Javed Jabbar asked the people, associated with NGO sector to record their observations and experiences.

He underlined the need to heavily invest on improvement of Pakistani image in international community. Manager, Development Communication Unit of NGORC Sabahat Saeed Khan and Anis Danish spoke on the occasion. The participants took part in discussion and asked many questions from the guest speaker.