PESHAWAR:The civil officers from Khyber Pakthunkhwa, Balochistan and other areas of the country were sensitized on media management during crisis situation through lecturers, trainings and mock exercises here at Pakistan Provincial Services Academy (PPSA) on Wednesday.
A day-long workshop on ‘media management in crisis situation and handling of social media’ was arranged for 91 pre-service courses of Provincial Management Service (PMS) Government of Khyber Pakthunkhwa and Assistant Commissioners and Sections Officers of Government of Balochistan here at PPSA.
The participants were exposed to different scenarios through mock and individual press talk exercises. Faculty member Col (Retd) Ejaz Ahmed said the prime objective of the workshop was to improve public service delivery through capacity building of the freshly recruited officers of KP and Balochistan governments and help them to handle media during crisis situations.
He appraised the officers about different techniques of media management and reducing media speculations, holding of press conferences, preparation of press releases, control of emotions and strong opening statements. Col Ejaz advised them to confirm and recheck all information before sharing it to the media.
Public Relations Officer, Finance and Health Departments Ataullah Khan said that article 19 of the Constitution provided every citizen freedom of speech and expressions.
Social and digital media had made deep inroads in society and great responsibilities rest on civil officers to take quick actions on verified information before it was converted into a crisis situation, he said, adding that delay in sharing information was tantamount to losing narrative and depriving masses from truth.
Usman Zafar, a resource person from Islamabad, said in his video link address that breaking news culture furthered the TV journalism after the 9/11 tragic incident in the US.
He said news speed of news papers were slow than TV channels and urged civil officers to make focus on accuracy, editorial checks and balances, response time, treatment and influence and other key elements of media management during crisis situation such as bomb blasts, earthquakes and fire eruption incident.
Usman said nearly 60 per cent people of Pakistan had internet facilities and government officials would lose narrative if time was lost.
He said TV journalism was more crisis oriented than print media and digital media was making great influence on people especially during COVID-19.
Efforts should be made to respond quickly before the development of the crisis situation, he said, adding that media should not be considered as enemy rather to be treated as facilitators.