The Pakistan Scientific & Technological Information Centre (PASTIC), the UNESCO- Information for all Programme (IFAP) National Committee and Individualland Pakistan jointly organized a Workshop on “Tools for Media Information Literacy (MIL)” on 22nd-23rd October, 2019 at PASTIC National Center, Islamabad. The main purpose of the workshop was to equip media personnel with the skills to critically analyze the information received from various sources, evaluate the meaning of the messages they consume, and learn techniques to produce ethical and truthful information and media content themselves.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Director General PASTIC, Prof Dr. Muhammad Akram Shaikh said that this workshop is part of the UNESCO Information for ALL Programme (IFAP), through which skill development of media personals for critical evaluation of information content is intended as an initiative to create media and information literacy (MIL) in Pakistan.

While talking to the participants, UNESCO’s representative in Pakistan, Vibeke Jensen said UNESCO has been working with various stakeholders in Pakistan to promote MIL in the country. One of the most recent activities was focused on use of MIL for the Prevention of Violent Extremism in Pakistan.

Executive Director Individual Land Pakistan, Gulmina Bilal Ahmad said that media literacy is necessary skill for every end user of media information, as it can help them in identification of fake content and development and dissemination of their own content in an ethical way.

In the panel discussion, status of working on MIL in Pakistan was discussed by Mr. Waseem Abbasi, Mr. Abbass Bilgrami, Ms. Gulmina Bilal Ahmad and Mr. Waqas Naeem. 30 media professionals attended the training sessions on various tools for analyzing, images, videos and text.