First female video journalist gets Press Freedom Award

AHMEDPUR EAST - Pakistan's first Islamabad-based female video journalist Sadia Sehar Haideri received RMNP Sadiq Press Freedom award and prize money of Rs1,25,000 in an event organised by the Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP) here at Ahmedpur East Food Club on Sunday night. The ceremony was chaired by Islamia University Bahawalpur Mass Communication Department Chairman Dr Ghulam Shabbir Baloch while Bahawalpur National Aami Party (BNAP) Central President Farooq Azam Malik and prominent political figure Hassan Askari Sheikh were the chief guests on the occasion. Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) President Sahibzada Muzzamilur Rashid Abbasi, BNAP Additional Secretary Mian Rafiatur Rehman Rehmani, Muncipal Committee Ex-Chairmn Mian Mohd Ilyas Ayaz and Markazi Anjuman-e-Tajran President & Market Committee Chairman Mian Mohammad Younas attended the ceremony. RMNP Central Coordinator (Ladies Wing) NajamunNisa Bukhari presented RMNP shield to Sadia Sehar acknowledging her courage and dedication with the profession while Dr Ghulam Shabbir gave her cheque sponsored by World Association of Newspapers & News publishers (WAN-IFRA). Mian Rafiatur Rehman also announced Rs20,000 for the award-winning journalist. The speakers paid rich tribute to Sadia Sehar's husband Azizullah Haideri, who was a correspondent and photographer for Reuters news agency and was shot dead by armed persons on Nov 19,2001 in Afghanistan along with his three other western countries colleagues. They said Sadia Sehar set a new precedent for the women in Pakistani media by adopting her husband's profession after his brutal murder. They underlined the need to raise the status of working women in urban oriented media by giving them decision making positions and to ratify the glaring absence of female rural journalists among the thousands of district correspondents. Sadia Sehar thanked RMNP for selecting her for the WAN-IFRA sponsored award. She said that RMNP was the first press freedom organisation in Pakistan which had instituted press freedom award in Pakistan in 2005. She hoped that the RMNP would expand its activities in near future to encourage victimised media persons in both rural and urban areas.