ISLAMABAD, July 15 2005: The International Islamic University (IIU) is launching the country’s first ever university-level course on media laws.In this regard, the university is collaborating with Pakistan office of Internews Network, an international media development organization, says a press release.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on July 14 by IIU President Dr Mahmood Ahmad Ghazi and Adnan Rehmat, country director, Internews Network Pakistan.
IIU Rector Justice (retired) Khalilur Rehman and S.M. Zaman, vice-president of the Council of Islamic Ideology, were also present on the occasion.
The course on media laws has been developed to develop expertise in the increasingly sophisticated media regulatory framework in the country.
According to the MoU, the course on media laws will be offered to journalists, lawyers, broadcasters, communication specialists and others.
The course has been designed by Internews Pakistan with the financial assistance of US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Internews Pakistan will train the university faculty and provide ongoing consultancy for teachers and students of media law. Access will be provided to the Media Legal Resource Centre at Internews.
Media as an industry is expanding exponentially in Pakistan, as well as the Muslim world in general, and has become a multi- disciplinary field requiring greater professionalism.
The emergence of new sophisticated regulatory regimes relating to media pluralism calls for a critical mass of professionally trained media lawyers to assist the burgeoning industry to meet the complex legal challenges facing it and to develop the expertise to defend media freedoms.
The course on media laws aims at imparting indepth understanding of laws in areas of media, intellectual property rights and regulatory frameworks in Pakistan as well as in various Islamic states like Turkey, Egypt and Indonesia.
Students having attended this course will be able to understand the role of media in developing an informed society and allied issues like media freedoms, media ethics, access to information, rights and responsibilities of media, etc.
The course will help develop a cadre of trained media lawyers to meet the new media regulatory challenges as well as defending media freedoms in the country.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/15/2005
