Islamabad October 17th, 2008: The Competitiveness Support Fund organized a workshop today on Innovation Journalism at local hotel, as part of one of its Capacity Building initiatives related to the Innovation Journalism Fellowship Program at Stanford University in the United States.

CSF’s Innovation Journalism Fellowship Program with Stanford University has been in operation since 2006. Through this program, the CSF sponsors the participation of leading Pakistani journalists in the Innovation Fellowship Program at Stanford University California.

Some eighty journalists from Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar were present at the workshop. Representatives of all the key media agencies attended the workshop; among the major players were The News, Business Recorder, Daily Times, The Nation, APP, Dawn TV, CNBC Pakistan, GEO TV, ARY, Samaa TV, Express TV and Aaj TV.

Arthur Bayhan, Chief Executive Officer CSF, sharing the objectives of CSF and its efforts in promoting innovation and competitiveness, noted: “Journalism is one of the important components of the ‘triple helix’ which covers the government, private sector and academia to enhance the competitiveness of the economy and to boost a sustained economic growth.

In a message to the gathered journalists, David Nordfors, the pioneer of Innovation Journalism and the founder and Director of the Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford University, said “The fellowship program is an excellent opportunity for journalists to broaden their horizons and learn about other areas of journalism instead of specializing in one particular area.” He encouraged entrepreneurial and active journalists who have a strong desire to learn to work hard to be become a potential candidate for the fellowship program.

Among the keynote speakers Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Samaa TV shared his insights on the Innovation Journalism Program in Pakistan and its development. He noted “Investment in media agencies is paramount. Local media agencies should invest in their infrastructure to be able to compete with their foreign counterparts, especially web-based news organizations like Google, and Yahoo, who will be the news dispensers of the future.

The agencies will be competing for content.” Mr Jahangir spoke about Samaa’s initiative to sponsor ten students to a Master’s program in Mass Journalism and also stressed the need to “increase public focus and create a debate on Innovation.”

Senior journalists Zamir Haider of GEO TV, Khaleeq Kiani of Samaa TV and Phyza Jamil of CNBC Pakistan shared their experiences of working in international news rooms in the United States as part of the Stanford Innovation Fellowship Program.

Zamir Haider spoke of his experiences working for CNET news agency, which is a web-based media company in the US. His main focus was to provide substantial coverage on technology issues. He said, “This is the main driver of innovation and in Pakistan it is not done very well.” He also warned against sensationalizing news too much because it took away from the core issues and dramatized the news.

Phyza Jamil, another fellow of the Stanford Innovation Fellowship Journalism Program spoke of the stereotypical view Americans hold of Pakistani women. It was her opinion that “We are caught in a Perception War and not a political or an economic one.”

In his presentation, Khaleeq Kiani of Samaa TV emphasized integrity in journalism, saying: ”The focus should be on the substance, facts, and less on embellishments.”

The participating journalists showed keen interest in the innovation journalism program and enthusiastically participated in the interactive question-answer sessions. Overall, their feedback was positive and they expressed a keen desire for more workshops on innovation journalism, saying it was an excellent initiative that would benefit journalists individually and journalism in Pakistan as a whole.

One of the main concerns raised was that media is dispensing a lot of negative information and there is less coverage of the positive, constructive work that is going on in Pakistan. Another useful pointer offered by Zamir Haider during the discussion was that capacity building starts from schools and so efforts should be made to reach out to students and instill a sense of entrepreneurship and innovation in them.

A second workshop on Innovation Journalism is tentatively scheduled to be held in Karachi in November.

The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), which is WEF’s partner institute in Pakistan, is a joint initiative of the United Sates Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan.

CSF was established to reposition Pakistan’s economy on a more global footing. The Fund is based on international best practices and has been tailored to the current Pakistani economic environment.

CSF supports Pakistan’s goal of a more competitive economy by providing input into policy decisions, working to improve regulatory and administrative frameworks and enhancing public-private partnerships within the country.

USAID’s support for CSF is part of the $2.8 billion aid that the U.S. Government has provided to Pakistan since 2002 to improve economic growth, education, health, and governance and to reconstruct the earthquake-affected areas.