By IANS,
Mumbai : Urging the Indian and Pakistani media not to use words such as “traditional rivals”, a seminar of mediapersons from the two countries called for creating an ambience for improving relations.
The Press Club Mumbai is celebrating Karachi Week to mark the visit of the Pakistani media delegation and hosted the seminar on “Role of Media in Indo-Pak Relations”.
Karamat Ali, executive director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, said journalists covering cricket matches between the two countries always described them as traditional rivals.
“Even in Pakistan, the Urdu media refers to them as ‘azli dushman’, which means eternal rivals as if we have been enemies right from the creation of the world,” he said.
He said both governments should allow “visa on arrival” like in the case of Nepal and Sri Lanka.
“Easing the movement of people between the two countries will go a long way in establishing regional peace,” he said.
Tahir Hasan Khan, president of Karachi Press Club, said journalists were not the part of the armies of the two nations and hence they should avoid the language of hatred.
“We are the people and we report to the people. We aree the media persons, hence, should report on people related developments and contribute to maintaining peace and harmony between our nations,” he said.
Gurbir Singh, president of Press Club Mumbai, compared the barriers between India and Pakistan to the “Berlin Wall” and said “this has to be demolished”.
Jatin Desai, journalist and an Indo-Pak peace activist, said India and Pakistan only allowed just two journalists to represent in each other’s countries. “This obviously limits the scope of reporting by media,” he said.
The Pakistan delegation represents newspapers and channels such as Dawn, The News, Jang Geo TV, ARY News and Express TV.