ISLAMABAD: The EU ambassador to Pakistan Lars- Gunnar Wigemark Wednesday said media played important role in early rehabilitation and recovery of the flood affected people.
He was addressing a function held at Pakistan National Council of the Arts to celebrate the success of a useful cooperation between EU and journalism to highlight the important issues following 2010 and 2012 floods in Pakistan.
The EU Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark commended the achievements of the 'Media for Early Recovery' project and reiterated EU's commitment to support Pakistan.
He said, "The 2010 flooding and severe floods both in 2011 and 2012 caused not only tremendous physical damage but also revealed a need for local media coverage of the effects of such disasters."
He said by communicating the specific needs of the local communities properly trained and equipped journalists can provide an important link between the flood-affected communities and the authorities responsible for their recovery and rehabilitation.
He said the freedom of information is essential for drawing attention to the consequences of major natural disasters.
The EU Ambassador further said, "This programme can be seen as a follow-up to the overall humanitarian assistance provided by the European Union and its Member State totalling over Euro 450 million".
The EU funded the 'Media for Early Flood Recovery' project (Tameer-e-Nau) with Internews Europe to help communicate the voice of the flood-affected people to the government through media capacity building and community mobilization.
The programme was aimed to improve accountability and assistance in the post-2010 floods recovery period, the project has focused on community needs through the eyes of the media.
The Ambassador and Head of the European Union Delegation to Pakistan Mr Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, members of the diplomatic community, journalists and civil society attended the event.
Thomas Baerthlein, who initiated the project, said it was exciting to work on such an innovative project.
"There is a lot of focus in the development sector on 'capacity building', and we have done that, trained many journalists," he explained.
He said, "But what made this project different was that we also worked on building trust between stakeholders."
Puruesh Chaudhary, who managed the project after Baerthlein said, "It is without a shred of doubt that communities in stress need to know, understand and practice the ways they can reach out to the people responsible and then also have the means and the competence to do so."
He said, "We have worked in 15 flood-affected districts, trained over 300 journalists, community groups, government officials and local NGOs, promoted ethical and environmental journalism; that resulted in the formation of the National Council of Environmental Journalism and the Coalition for Ethical Journalism."
She added that the project worked with community leaders, local NGOs, district and local governments as well as print media in flood-affected areas to mobilize the community to speak out for their rights.
Community Liaison Manager Waseem Ejaz said, "Through Interactive Theater performances, we reached to the most vulnerable population; empowered them to raise collective voice and take concrete actions towards eliminating poverty, social injustice and gender discrimination".
The programme also improved the capacity of national and regional television networks to engage with and report on grassroots governance issues in flood-affected areas.
Michael Alexander, TV Resident Journalism Advisor said, "Training and mentoring has helped journalists tell their stories much more effectively, from how stories are planned to how they are produced."
Connecting the Dots, a documentary presentation on the project was screened during the ceremony.
Awards were given to winners by EU Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark.
Those who got these awards include Najia Mir, Rafia Shabbir, Irfan Hussain, Nomita Gul, Saeed Ahmed, Mirwaar, Sohni Dharti, Taj- u-Din, Muddasar Mughal, Danish Feroz, Akram Bhatti, Ghazanfar Bukhari, Farzana Nishat, Sajida Parveen, Asghar Tabish, Tashfeen Rehman and Fareed Ullah.
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