ISLAMABAD: Forty pioneering Pakistani FM radio stations that focus on news and current affairs gathered in Islamabad in the second week of November 2010 for an advanced level training on community peacebuilding.
Building on the inaugural National Radio Summit of 60 Pakistani FM radio stations in June 2010 that established the landmark Radio Partnership for Peace, and the first round of primary trainings for these stations in Karachi and Islamabad in July and August, 40 shortlisted stations that have pledged to work for community peacebuilding participated in a 4-day training to take forward the concept of a community of peace on air.
The participant 40 FM stations from Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Azad Kashmir attended this training. All these stations had earlier pledged commitment and professional excellence to develop and promote a community of peace on air in Pakistan by signing MoUs.
Conducted jointly by Intermedia and Uks, and supported by Search for Common Ground (SFCG), the training focused on putting into practice through production of radio talk shows the peacebuilding themes outlined in the radio summit and the first round of trainings.
Among other things, the participants of the training from the 40 FM stations developed a radio talk show template for a special radio program by each station that will help each FM station map local conflict in the broadcast footprint of the respective station. It also focused on adopting methodologies to engage the local communities to discuss the local level conflicts and employ the common ground approaches to offer collaborative approaches to conflicts.
The advanced curriculum development training – which was the first ever for such a large group of radio stations in Pakistan – was part of a major national initiative launched in June 2010 by SFCG, an international organization that promotes and facilitates collaborative approaches to peace building and conflict transformation, in partnership with local organizations Intermedia , a media support organization that focuses on advocacy, research and training on media issues, and Uks , a research and resource center working to promote gender equality and women's profile in media.
The advanced training aimed at offering Pakistani FM stations methodologies, best practices and technical resources on raising professional standards, becoming sector leaders, and contributing to and building peace profiles of the local communities across Pakistan. |
