Daily Times

LAHORE: Freedom of information is one of the most important traits that can help media perform with complete freedom, independence and responsibility, said former Daily Times editor Rashed Rahman, who was addressing the participants on the second day of a capacity building workshop on ‘Policies, Security Mechanisms and Best Practices for Media’ organised by Individualland Pakistan on Saturday.

The two-day event was organised to build the capacity of media houses and to train them take effective security measures to protect media personnel and journalists from violence. The training included different sessions on the need of security policy, code of ethics at national level, devising standard operating procedures, implementation of SOPs and security of premises and equipment.

On the occasion, Lahore Arts Council Director Capt (r) Atta Muhammad was of the view that media was the eyes and ears of the society and in order to allow it to function properly, it must be protected from all the external and internal threats.

Railways Director General Rauf Tahir, while addressing the awards ceremony of the capacity building workshop, said, “Individualland Pakistan has done a great job by arranging the two days workshop on security of journalists. The gap left by the media houses is being filled by organisations like Individualland Pakistan.”

The participants were engaged in discussions, group work and role-playing activities during the two-day workshop. They were also asked to develop security mechanisms for their respective organisations during a group activity. All the participants lauded the efforts of Individualland Pakistan for organising such a great event and demanded such events to be organised regularly in the future as well.

Former Chief Minister’s Complaint Cell director Shahid Qadir also attended the event and lauded the efforts of Individualland Pakistan for arranging the capacity building workshop. Tauseeq Haider and Sundus Syeda moderated the event on behalf of Individualland Pakistan.

Individualland Pakistan is a research based consultancy and advocacy group working since 2007. It has demonstrated expertise of working on peace building and counter violent extremism initiatives with various demographics such as youth, women, and children as part of its work supported by USAID, EU and NED. The NGO also engaged parliamentarians and clerics using publications, audio-visual tools as well as utilised social media to disseminate well researched peace messages.