Improving Access to Online Information in Rural Areas
The last two decades have witnessed increased freedom for the print media and liberalisation of the broadcasting section in Pakistan. Today, more than 1000 dailies, weeklies and magazines are being published in the country, while more than 172 licenses have been issued to private FM radio stations and TV channels. Similarly, Internet use is increasing at an astounding rate. Some seven million Pakistanis in more than 1000 cities, towns and rural centres are connected to the Internet. Recently, newspapers publishers have been authorised to open their TV channels. However, freedom of expression in Pakistan, still very fragile, needs to be protected, promoted and nurtured. Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP) contributes to democracy and to defending press freedom and promoting freedom of expression by providing access to hidden press freedom and human rights violations on its website online-rmnp.tripod.com hosted by the Commonwealth Journalists Association, Australia, since May 2006. We are only able to put two or three reports in English language per week, due to lack of space. A large number of reports go unpublished due to residing of the host in another continent. This limits the plurality of information, since the rural journalists working for Urdu language media have no access to English language. It is proposed that a web unit be set up with English and country Urdu languages, so that the press freedom violations and FOE Newsletter Sadiq News be published immediately. To that end, journalists at Rural Media Network Pakistan would need to be trained in writing and editing content for the web. Additionally, computer hardware and software is needed, so that resources can be dedicated on a daily basis to the updating and management of the website. This project will make press freedom and human rights violations news available to both rural journalists and national / international press freedom groups in real time, while website equipment will also be utilised for online distribution of monthly FOE (freedom of expression) newsletter Sadiq News, besides the issuance of action alerts to national and international professional organisations. The training provided to journalists will improve the way in which Rural Media Network communicates with its online readers.
The implementation of this project saw the launch of Urdu newsletter 'Sadiq News' to report violations of freedom of expression and other related news, as well as the delivery of: 2 days of training for male journalists on freedom of expression; 3 days training for women journalists on online journalism; and 12 weeks of training in writing and editing content for the Urdu language website. The project was successfully concluded by the beneficiary and final report submitted.