Yahya Reki
Journalism is really one of the great professions in all over the world. It is a profession to write for Newspapers, magazines, or broadcasting news on radio and Television. With the passage of time everything has developed and this field has also got developed and now people are writing for online newspapers. It is a good opportunity for rural area people to write for online newspapers. It is very difficult to find correct news on time and send via mail to concerned newspaper.
Journalism is very easy to tell but there is a big series of problems in line of duty. A large number of rural area youngsters are linked with this profession in Balochistan, who are playing important role in national development but they are facing feelings of destitution and segregation. The local and regional journalists are passing through different hurdles while the rural area journalists and correspondents are neither facilitated by government nor supported by their media organizations.
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Rural journalism has always been suffering a miserable status in Balochistan. Young journalists are writing, casting and even translating news for different Online and printing newspapers, Radio and Televisions in Balochistan are deprived of salaries and all kinds of provision. They are facing a lot of complication during work. Working journalists don’t know how to report a crime and natural disaster or other news.
There is also problem of convenience for rural area journalist in Balochistan. Rural areas are far from every district which is back-breaking for a journalist to access and collect right information about any news. It is being found in different districts of Balochistan.
Online journalism is a great development in Media and people can access easily but the staff members in different district are facing a lot of hindrance due to no salaries. The online media journalists also have problems due to lack of resources.
Rural journalists have a lot of pressures from different segments of life which prevents them from working independently.
There is also paucity of training opportunities for rural area journalists in Balochistan. This appearance does not exist in different parts of Balochistan for online media workers. The training problem is a hornet’s nest because the nature of jobs of the rural journalists in Balochistan and other parts of the country along with the world. A few efforts have been made in the recent past to train rural journalists. Some international organizations have sponsored training workshops but these efforts are not adequate. Majority of rural journalists could not have any opportunity to attend a training course for reporting news.
Pakistan right to information act (2013) and freedom of information 2002 provide legal right to every citizen of Pakistan to have access to information but practically journalists face many difficulties to have an access to official documents. The situation is more adverse with the rural journalists, they are not able to reach to the sources of information that’s why they rely on press release issued by individuals and organizations etc. Rural journalists are also deprived of new technologies of work and still using old traditional track without having to access to internet and latest media technologies.
There is only one Media and Journalism department in University of Balochistan which was established in January 1987 and started regular teaching in March 1987 with a small faculty. It needs to establish more branches in different districts of Degree colleges of Balochistan to educate students.
Hammad Ullah Rind, Senior Journalist and former president of Balochistan Union of Journalists said that there is no policy for working journalists in Balochistan. Journalists are facing a lot of problems due to no implementation of labor rules. There are no wages board rules for journalist who work 8 to 10 hours.
He added that online media is modern technology in Journalism and people can highlight their issues in just seconds. Online media is playing its prominent role in Balochistan to highlight problems.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.
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