Collaboration in media training to usher in a new era of friendship: Durrani
By Khalid Amin

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Durrani said Thursday the present government has strived to provide maximum opportunities to the media. He was talking to His Excellency Régis de Belenet, Ambassador of France to Pakistan during a meeting here.
“We are planning to build the capacity of our media professionals by providing them with the best possible training and learning opportunities both domestically and abroad”, Durrani said, adding that Islamabad Media University (IMU) will start operating shortly for which we were collaborating with different leading western Institutions.
Mr. Belenet appreciated Ministry’s projects for enhancing professionalism of Pakistan’s media sector and agreed to develop collaboration between two French institutes and the IMU. “AFP Foundation and The Higher School of Journalism are two prestigious French Institutions that train journalists in developing countries and give assistance to various organizations in media training”, the Ambassador said, adding their aim is to promote higher standards of journalism around the world.
He further said that, in addition to training services, these institutes will also provide educational materials to schools and universities, and will organize seminars about vital issues such as press freedom, ethics and women’s status in news media.
The ambassador said that our collaboration with the IMU will seek to raise journalists’ professional standards in accordance with international norms, and to promote press freedom. Pak-French collaboration in the media training, said Mr. Belenet, will not merely result in better reporting, but will also strive to reduce poverty, and other challenges through independent and responsible media.
Farook Khan, Consultant Islamabad Media University, briefed the distinguished guest about the whole project and informed that four-week courses in media ethics, incident reporting, interview techniques and news gathering for working journalists are ready to be launched shortly by the IMU.
The Minister welcomed Pak-French collaboration in media training and hoped that this initiative will usher in a new era of friendship between Pakistan and France.