Pakistani Women Take to the Airwaves
Kathleen Reen |
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Tasneem Ahmar, seated, with trainees.
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For the first time in nearly 60 years, Pakistan has independent broadcast media. As of November, the government had issued 60 of the 100 radio licenses to be awarded, and six stations were already on the air.
Responding to the government’s decision to open up the broadcast sector to private ownership, in May 2003 Internews launched a project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) that includes advising the Pakistan government on media law and providing training to journalists and managers of the country’s first private radio stations.
A major component of Internews’ work in Pakistan is the establishment of the first and only independent radio station to broadcast into Islamist strongholds on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The station is based at Peshawar University.
Another focus of Internews' work in Pakistan is its partnership with the Uks Foundation, a Pakistani organization that promotes balanced coverage of women in news and entertainment programming.
Internews has built a state-of-the-art independent radio production facility at Uks’ offices in Islamabad where women journalists are being trained to produce radio programs.
Only three percent of journalists in Pakistan are women, and prior to the Internews program, none of these women had worked for non-governmental radio stations.
“If there could be more women in the media, and they could succeed in making it to the top, then I feel women’s issues would be reflected and projected more positively,” said Uks founder Tasneem Ahmar, 47. “Our radio project is doing just that, identifying issues and presenting them in a positive manner.”
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Aurangzaib Khan |
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Internews trainer Joseph Leon Guerrero
demonstrates radio production techniques to women journalists at
the Uks Foundation in Islamabad, Pakistan. |
As part of the Uks-Internews partnership, women journalists are trained in radio reporting and production. They then produce the country’s first independent syndicated programs that feature women as both producers and subjects. The radio programming focuses on gender issues such as health and education.
The women’s radio show, “Meri Awaz Suno” (“Hear My Voice”), has agreements to air on five of the six independent Pakistani radio stations, reaching across the country.
Other Internews activities in Pakistan include training media lawyers, developing a radio curriculum at Peshawar University’s journalism school, and providing in-house training to Pakistan’s new independent radio stations.
Transcripts of "Meri Awaz Suno":