Indo-Pak journalists want special visas

Chandigarh, Feb 20, 2013, (PTI):

Journalists from India and Pakistan today urged upon their respective governments to introduce special visas for scribes, allowing them to travel freely in either country with minimum visa restrictions.

At a conference here, it was agreed between Lahore and Chandigarh Press Clubs that contact between the journalistic fraternity of the two neighbours must continue and regular exchange of media delegations must ensue.

The fifth Panj Darya Media Conference hosted by the Chandigarh Press Club here, in which 32 journalists from Pakistan under the banner of Lahore Press Club participated, appealed to both governments to liberalise travel rules for journalists by issuing special visas and ensuring free flow of information and ideas between scribes of the two nations.

Burma offers visas to journalists

Reporters will be able to work in Burma for up to a year under new regulations aimed at ensuring wider press freedom
Kate Hodal in Rangoon

guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 February 2013 18.29 GMT

President Thein Sein has initiated extensive political and economic reforms in a country formerly ruled for five decades by a military junta. Photograph: AP

Foreign reporters will soon be able to work for up to a year in Burma on short and long-term journalist visas after new regulations were introduced aimed at ensuring wider press freedom.

The new rules are intended to give local and foreign reporters greater access to government officials and will come into effect around mid-April, deputy minister for information and presidential spokesman U Ye Htut said told the Guardian.

Not “Them Versus Us” For Americans And Pakistanis – OpEd

By CGNews -- (February 20, 2013)
By Daud Malik

A Gallup Pakistan poll released on 15 February 2013 shows 92 per cent of Pakistanis disapprove of US leadership. Similarly, a recent report by the Pew Research Centre said roughly three out of four Pakistanis consider the United States an enemy — up from 69 per cent last year and 64 per cent three years ago.

If polls and perceptions are to be believed, Pakistan and the United States seem worlds apart when it comes to how to tackle the question of war and peace because a trust deficit dominates their tense bilateral ties. However, when ordinary Pakistanis and Americans meet, they bring down many stereotypes about each other, narrating stories that are different than the popular perceptions. This is also the story of Arasalan Asad, a senior producer and reporter with Pakistan Television (PTV).

Women journalists make a mark

Against all odds, feisty women journalists continue to be undeterred by threats of persecution

Accepting the challenge: Sabba and Shumaima Rehman.

Women journalists routinely face harassment and threats, including death threats while covering conflict zones everywhere, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yet these feisty women continue to swim against the tide and create space for themselves in journalism.

Farida Nekzad, 40, is a role model for many girls keen on pursuing journalism in Afghanistan today. She has faced threats of kidnapping, acid attacks and even an attempt to blow up her apartment ever since she set up her own news agency eight years ago in Kabul. Despite the fact that the Taliban routinely bombards her with threatening e-mails and phone calls warning her of horrendous consequences if she continues her work, Nekzad remains undeterred.

How journalists can use petition site Change.org to source stories

A look at how Change.org, which carries petitions from individuals across the world, can be used by journalists to find the first-person stories driving the campaigns
Posted: 15 February 2013 By: Rachel McAthy

The campaigns featured on petition site Change.org cover issues from across the globe, ranging from petitions about local services to subjects on more of a national scale.

Contained within those campaigns are often the stories of the individuals who have initiated the petition, and so for journalists, the campaigns can help highlight the human impact behind the headlines.

In this feature senior campaigner at Change.org Katherine Sladden, outlines the different ways the site can be used by journalists. This follows last week's Journalism.co.uk podcast on campaigning journalism last week which Sladden contributed to.