Danish Ambassador to Pakistan, Uffe Wolffhechel on Tuesday met a large group of leading journalists from various Pakistani media groups to discuss the needs of the media industry in Pakistan. This consultative meeting was arranged by the Danish Embassy as part of their recent launch of the Danish International Development Agency, DANIDA in Pakistan, which would be focusing on supporting media development initiatives.
The meeting was hosted by the ambassador at his residence and primarily included discussions on the need of the media in view of the increasing violence against journalists and the need for analytical and investigative journalism. Wolffhechel said that Denmark believed that the media was one of the most important pillars in the structure of democracy and that it should be given its due importance.
In addition to this, he also said that this also required that the workforce of the media in Pakistan was equipped with the analytical skills to deal with important issues in society and investigate them as part of their responsibility towards the people of Pakistan.
The ambassador further said that Denmark would be supporting various initiatives for building the capacity of media in Pakistan, which would include safety training for journalists, support to radio stations in northern areas through training and equipment, educational radio programmes and international training tours.
He also said that "We are in particular very interested in promoting more women in media, so that they can play an equal role in developing this industry based on non-bias and factual information. This would surely also support in addressing gender based issues, which unfortunately is not very prominent in today's media.
We will also be working closely with universities across Pakistan to promote media as an emerging field with need for strong female professionals as well as support the establishment of a Women Wing at the Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), so that women journalists are facilitated both legally and professionally and thereby obtain their legal rights."
The USD 28 million Danish development programme framework consists of three major components. The first component involve Stabilisation and Early Recovery of border areas with Afghanistan, which is a multilateral channel that will support the Government of Pakistan in restoring infrastructure, services and livelihoods in the country's conflict-affected border areas. Under this component, DANIDA has granted UNICEF Pakistan USD 11 million to UNICEF's efforts to provide education for children affected by the crisis in KP and FATA.
To further support the development and democratic process in the northern areas, the Government of Denmark has pledged $7 million to the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), which will be working towards the restoration of damaged Infrastructure and disrupted services in KP, Balochistan and FATA. Denmark was one of the first nations to pledge to the MDTF - a World Bank administered fund.
The second component of the framework programme, $7 million is for support to the Civil Society, where DANIDA in joint collaboration with local partners will support initiatives that work towards developing good governance, human rights and gender equality. Identifying media as one of the most important tools in educating on the subjects of democracy and human rights, almost 50 percent of the civil society programmes focus on media development initiatives, which in particular focus on enhancing the investigative journalism scale in Pakistan, promote conflict solution through media and mainstreaming of gender.
The third component carries overall focus on security and justice sector reforms. Under this component, Denmark has committed $2.2 million to the United Nations Office on drugs and crime for one year. The Danish contribution will be utilised with the aim to improve border control and the criminal justice system in Pakistan.-PR
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