Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Finance, Hina Rabbani Khar on Wednesday met with a group of journalists who were part of the Innovation Journalism Fellowship Programme (IJFP) of the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) at Stanford University in California, to discuss innovation journalism to promote competitiveness in Pakistan.
CSF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Arthur Bayhan briefed Hina on the salient features of IJFP and the procedure CSF was adopting in selecting the working journalist for attending fellowship programme.
The programme, which spans over three to four months, is designed to prepare participants for innovative reporting on economic development and finance. Ms Rabbani Khar discussed the details and the benefits of the programme, which included the experience, gained in different news rooms in the US.
The Stanford Fellowship Programme provides the means to journalists to strive for excellence in their specialised fields, and benchmark themselves against their counterparts in the West. The objective of the Fellowship Programme is to develop better understanding of innovative processes; help participants to observe international aspects of the innovation economy; assist in bridging technology and business reporting in Pakistan and bridge the gap between reporting in Pakistan and reporting in the US and other countries.
Ms Rabbani Khar noted that this important initiative will increase public focus on innovation, business and technology; improve communication with clusters or innovation systems; create understanding of the rapidly growing global innovation economy; understand the role of journalism and news in driving innovation; as well as create enhanced personal networks for their respective media organisations.
The journalists attending the meeting with Ms Rabbani Khar shared what they learnt from their experiences in the United States. CSF recently organised a workshop on capacity building and innovation journalism in Islamabad. Around 80 journalists participated in the workshop. They expressed keen interest in the efforts and the programme and said it motivated them to do better in their profession. CSF is organising a second workshop on capacity building and innovation journalism in Karachi in November.