MIL conference on Psycho social well being of journalists organized in Islamabad

6th Media and Information Literacy Conference on “Psycho social Well being of the Journalists” was organized by storytelling community for the journalism students and working journalists.

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The conference aimed at highlighting the rigors that journalists face in the field and newsrooms in order to promote media literacy and sensitize the society psycho-socially. It is a part of the GAPMIL week celebration by UNESCO.

Fatima Misbah - an author and a journalist - presented her research paper titled “The Awareness Level in Pakistani Journalistic Community about Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder.” According to her research, 60.2% of the journalists admitted that they were psychologically affected. 80.6% did not know about STSD, and 83.7% of the journalists never sought counseling services to resolve their traumas.

She said, “The existing psychological traumas in the journalistic community which remain unresolved is a reason why our local media culture continues deteriorating.” She further added that the psychological disturbances found in the media content producer directly has an impact on the media content and narrative buildings.
On this occasion during the panel discussion, Amir Jahangir said, “Media in Pakistan is going through a transition, the changing consumption patterns are affecting media’s competitiveness, this is creating serious stress on the journalism communities across Pakistan. Job uncertainty, financial discrimination, and lack of trainings are impacting the quality of journalism that is impacting the society.

Both the regulators and the media owners are equally responsible for this state of affairs, status quo on this will only erode trust and empathy from the society, ultimately losing trust amongst each other in the long run.” Another panellist Sadia Mazhar emphasize on the rigours faced by the female journalists and the objectification that women face in media. She also said, “Media houses don't protect their journalists and are not always interested in doing so.

Journalists in Pakistan are seen as disposable stuff. If media houses cannot protect their journalists, journalists should at least be able to protect themselves. Mental health issues, if remain untreated, it have an impact on work relationship, functioning and productivity of a journalist.” Tariq Mehmood Malik, senior journalist and an academician, emphasized on the need to debate more on the subject of journalist’s psycho-social wellbeing.

He said, “Despite having international exposure, I did not have the orientation to seek psychological help to resolve my trauma which I exposed to during the times of Lal Masjid issue and Afghan War. We need to be more vocal about it and start advocating for the psycho-social rights of the journalists.”
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