By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
ISLAMABAD: AGAHI with the support from the French Embassy in Pakistan on Friday celebrated the successful completion of the Trust Fellowship Programme by the Trust Fellows 2021 – 22, Sidra Dar and Aiman Mahmood.
The ‘Kalām’ Centre of Trusting Societies hosts the Trust Fellowship Programme, a platform for journalists focusing on trust as one of the fundamental building blocks of human agency and well-being.
A three-month fellowship programme aimed to encourage information hygiene by improving the state of factual reporting practices in the country with the mission to cultivate trust in society. The Fellows were provided with extensive training courses and mentorship sessions to improve their understanding of the factors that drive trust in journalism, including an advanced understanding of misinformation, disinformation and misinformation practices.
Sidra Dar and Aiman Mahmood won the AGAHI Awards 2021 in the categories of Human Rights and Democracy. The two journalists were selected for the Trust Fellowship Programme. On March 24, Sidra Dar and Aiman Mahmood both presented research work during an online discussion. The focus of Mahmood’s research was the fishermen’s community of Ibrahim Hayderi documenting the narrative through a democratic lens whereas Dar’s was on the identity challenges of the Bengali community-oriented more towards human rights. The Fellows discussed their research work produced as a result of the Trust Fellowship Programme with His Excellency Nicolas Galey Ambassador of France to Pakistan in the ceremony hosted at his residence in Islamabad.
‘The research work produced by the Trust Fellows shows a promising future for the quality of journalism and media freedom in the country, which France is happy to support and celebrate’, said His Excellency Nicolas Galey, Ambassador of France to Pakistan.
The Trust Fellows 2021 – 22 were honoured with gold medals and certificates to commemorate the successful completion of the programme. Eight modules were included in their training course, these modules were Declining Public Trust in Journalism: Possible Indicators to Regain Trust – Misinformation, Disinformation, And Misinformation: Understanding the Base of Information Disorder – Information Disorder: Strategies to Combat Information Disorder – Dwindling Journalism in Pakistan: Conundrum of Finances and Journalism Practices – Debunking Misinformation: What the Fact-Checkers are doing? – Information Verification in Digital Age: Dilemmas of Verifying Online Content – Digital Safety of Journalists in Pakistan: Combatting Online Threats, Abuse, Harassment – Qualitative Research Methodology and Technique.
‘While there has been a rapid decline in Pakistan’s ranking on the Press Freedom Index it is becoming ever more important to design and develop programmes that can effectively improve the professional competence of the young journalists; the hard work and dedication that Aiman and Sidra put into their research demand recognition for their efforts and as we collaborate with partners to enhance the quality of the Trust Fellowship Programme we would like them to thank the French Embassy in Pakistan for their support’ said Puruesh Chaudhary Founder and President AGAHI; Lead, Kalām Centre for Trusting Societies.
AGAHI is an award-winning organization as a leading innovator of information and knowledge-sharing platforms and for its communication strategies. It encourages and advises individuals and
