23 November 2005
EARTHQUAKE-HIT JOURNALISTS NEED URGENT SUPPORT: PPF
A Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) mission to the earthquake-devastated areas of north-west Pakistan has found that journalists suffered terrible losses and require urgent support to rebuild local media.
Covering North West Frontier Province and the Pakistan-administered area of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the report reveals that 242 people working for media suffered personal or property losses.
Eleven were killed and seventeen injured. Sixty-nine family members of media personnel were killed and 15 injured. One hundred and seventeen houses belonging to media personnel were destroyed and another 54 suffered damages.
PPF found that the majority of losses to media personnel and organisations occurred in the city of Muzaffarabad. Journalists in Muzaffarabad are living and working in tents, says PPF. "Lack of safe office space is a major problem for rehabilitation of media."
In the city of Balakot, the destruction of telecommunication and electricity infrastructure meant the shutdown of the press. As an emergency measure, PPF provided journalists with mobile phones and arranged free air time from the mobile telephone company Telenor.
Journalists in the affected areas told PPF that in view of the crucial role of the media in keeping the country and the world informed of developments in monitoring relief efforts, the rehabilitation of media should be given top priority in reconstruction activities.
From 15 to 23 October 2005, PPF sent a mission to assess damage to media in earthquake-hit areas. It is now conducting a second mission to visit areas previously inaccessible due to landslides caused by the earthquake.
To read PPF's full report, visit:
http://www.pakistanpressfoundation.org
(Image courtesy of IRINnews.org)
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