President Dr Arif Alvi said on Monday that his office would continue to play its constitutional role for bringing about social change in the country.
The president expressed his strong resolve to continue his efforts to raise awareness about social issues such as malnutrition, infant mortality, population growth, and women’s right to inheritance.
He was talking to a delegation of Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) Standing Committee, which called on him at Aiwan-i-Sadr, Islamabad on Monday.
Advisor to the PM on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan was also present on the occasion.
“Media has a very important role to play in bringing about social change in any society,” he said.
Appreciating the role of the media in general and print media in particular, he said that all media stakeholders should be extra careful while dealing with challenges of fake news. “It is an old phenomenon, but can have disastrous consequences. In recent years, fake news has blurred the accuracy of news space,” he said.
The president said that unless a nation was equipped with modern concepts and technologies, including artificial intelligence, the dream of becoming a progressive and developed country would remain unfulfilled. He thanked media for their support on his initiative on artificial intelligence which had been a big success in Karachi. Now, it had recently been launched in Islamabad and Faisalabad.
The president said that Pakistan would fully support the peace process in Afghanistan and actively contribute to its development. Earlier, Advisor to the PM on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that the guidance and the patronage of the President Dr Arif Alvi had always been very encouraging for the development of media in Pakistan. She also assured the media community of support from the government for responsible journalism in the country.
CPNE President Arif Nizami expressed gratitude on behalf of the media community to President Dr Arif Alvi for his constant support for them. He further said that it was the responsibility of the media community to fact-check news for accuracy before disseminating it to curb the trend of fake news.
