Islamabad, Oct 25, IRNA ,A senior Pakistani journalist working for the official news channel on Friday urged the ECO countries to form a media pool having their own TV channel, magazines, newspapers and news agencies to counter the western propaganda against Islam.
Asmatullah Niazi talking to IRNA with reference to forthcoming meeting of ECO news agencies stressed the need for promoting professionalism among official news agencies having trained journalists of international level.
He was of the view that the biggest challenge being faced by the official news agencies is the governments control on them.
Asmat added that there is a need to end the control of governments on news agencies they should be given free hand in releasing their news stories.
He said that the importance of news agencies couldn’t be denied they act like TV channels.
He opined that most of official news agencies keep on waiting for clearance to release their news items, which is unfortunate. “They should be independent in decision-making,” he added.
He said that there is dire need to drag out the official news agencies from the clutches of ministries.
He believed that the information ministry should not exist in the ECO countries adding that all the developed countries are working with out such ministry. “If there is no information ministry you would be able to attain better credibility,” he said.
“Once you establish credibility then it would help in promoting your ideology more effectively,” he said.
He suggested that there should be journalist exchange program among the ECO countries so that the journalist of these countries could know each other in a better way.
He said that the feature writing should be utilized to counter the western propaganda against Islam.
Asmat added that the Islamic media should interact with the western media keeping their bias aside against west. “More you interact with west more they will learn about you. The news should be exchanged between the west and the ECO countries,” he suggested.
He said that the creative and innovative writing should be encouraged among the ECO countries. “We have to make ourselves strong on economic and professional fronts,” he added.
Asmatullah Niazi has been working in the Pakistan Television for more than 20 years.
He has proved his abilities in the field of news reporting, documentary production and news editing.
Presently he is working as a National news assignment editor in PTV.