A two-day capacity-building workshop on ‘Journalism and Peacebuilding’ began at Central University of Kashmir (CUK) on Friday.

The workshop is being organised by Department of Convergent Journalism in collaboration with Centre for Law & Development Policy (CLD) and Kargil Development Project.

The workshop is aimed to sensitize journalism students about the role of media in peacebuilding.

In his welcome address, Dean School of Media Studies and Registrar, CUK, Prof. M Afzal Zargar stressed on the role of media in de-escalating the conflict. “We see the role of media in escalating conflicts now-a-days. Being from a conflict area, the prime time news shows are frustrating. Narratives are created and imposed on us and they aggravate the conflict when ideally media should facilitate conflict resolution,” Prof. Zargar said.

He said the theme of the workshop is quite relevant in the current scenario given the impact of media on the society and psyche of people.

Earlier, welcoming the participants, Coordinator, DCJ, CUK, Asif Khan spoke about the significance of the theme of the workshop in the contemporary scenario. “Building up of peace qua journalism can make a lot of difference in a conflict area like ours; media should always be there to mitigate the sufferings of the innocent and masses,” Khan added.

Shafat N Ahmad, Executive Director of CLD, briefed the participants about the work and profile of the organization.

“Media professionals as peace builders can contribute a lot and I feel students need to be equipped with knowledge about peace and conflict issues,” Shafat said.

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