Speakers at a seminar urged the media people to realise their responsibilities and stop portraying negative aspects of the issues, which tarnish the country's image abroad.
Speakers at a seminar on "The Responsibilities and Limitations of the Media", organised by MWPJO at a local hotel, included Tauqir Fatima Bhutto, Minister for Women Development, Fawzia Naqvi, President, MWPJO, Sultana Siddiqui, Mehtab Rashdi, Erum Masood, Ikram Sehgal, PJ Mir, Huma Baqai, Masudah Ahmad, Shahzad Mahmood, Tammy Ayesha Haque, Khursheed Hyder, Fauzia Shamshad, Anila Weldon, Yasin Siddiq, Tauqueer Muhajir, Niilofer Farrukh and Shaheen Salauddin.
They emphasised the importance of women journalists in our society and the part they could play in highlighting burning issues and added that the responsibilities and the limitations of the media women could not be separated from media men. They said that electronic media should portray all sections of the population. However, negative images would not only be harmful for the society but on the country's solidarity as well.
Although freedom of media is necessary, newsmen should also own their responsibilities and should not present any content before readers or audience, which may damage the national interest. They said that media must play a positive role in strengthening the democratic forces in the country and make the government accessible to the common man.
They opined that the media seems to be harping on the same non-issues and that we have not kept our national interest in mind and added that unverified news items could be harmful to the interest of the country. They further said that the sole responsibility of the media was to propagate the truth and added that truth should not be allowed to be twisted.
The speakers were of the view that "Freedom of Expression" has a lot of responsibility readers and viewers could make their own judgements themselves. They added that freedom of expression also has its limits. A large number of people belonging to media institutions were present on the occasion.