IT ministry to provide computers, internet facilities to 122 press clubs, PIDs

The Ministry of Information Technology has approved a project worth Rs 34.5 million to provide computers and internet facilities to all major press clubs of the country. It is distressing to learn that our press clubs still rely on archaic methods for receiving and disseminating information and realising the financial constraints the press clubs face, the government has come up with this project to help improve the dissemination of news in the shortest possible time, said Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari.
He said the main idea behind the project was to make full use of IT in equipping the press clubs as well as the Press Information Departments offices with modern communication facilities to improve their functions.
The approval to the project was given at a meeting of the departmental development working party (DDWP) of ministry of information technology with Secretary Khalid Saeed in the chair.
Under the project, a total of 122 press clubs in all the four provinces as well as Northern Areas will be equipped with computers and connected to the Internet and email facilities for instant exchange of information.
In addition, 11 press information centers/departments all over the country and two district press clubs in Azad Kashmir will also be provided these facilities.
Each location will be equipped with a number of computers which would range from 1 to 10 depending on the size of the press club. In locations where there are two or more computers local area networking will also be provided and all the computers will be connected to the Internet.
In his statement, Awais Leghari stated that in order to make full use of this facility, training component has been included in the project for providing on-site training at all the Press clubs where the facilities are provided.
To ensure the utilisation of the equipment delivery and sustainability after the life of the project each press dues will enter into a formal agreement with the ministry, he added. He said a similar project had already been implemented successfully by the ministry for the District Bar Associations, where online access to statutory and case laws has been provided to the lawyers and the judges.
This project has been highly successful and the user community has given very positive feedback, he said, adding the IT-enabling of the Press Clubs is also being done on similar lines to extend the benefits of IT to the common man.
Leghari emphasised the creation of knowledge repositories which can be leveraged for the creation of new knowledge.
Today in the paper based systems such knowledge repositories are difficult to create and even those that are available have limited utility because they are difficult to access and search, he said, adding with the IT-enablement of the press clubs the information will be in electronic form and this will facilitate the press clubs in the creation of electronic repositories which will provide instant access to information and can be searched efficiently.
The project also includes basic automation software at all the locations to facilitate the journalists in producing their news reports and articles online. The e-enablement of press clubs will result in increased productivity of the journalists as well as reducing the time for forwarding news to different news agencies.
Particularly in small towns and cities where currently there are limited facilities for sending of news to the publishing agencies, the project will bring drastic reduction in the time for reporting.
Similarly, for receiving information the press clubs will have the availability of the vast resources of information on the Internet and other news services at their finger tips. Thus they will be well informed and in a better position to develop news stories and articles.