The role of journalists should be dedicated to renouncing the use of arms and resorting to working out problems through dialogue, to solve conflicts through peaceful means.

This conclusion was reached in the five-day regional workshop organised in the capital to discuss and find the solution to problems and threats faced by community and small newspapers in the South Asian region.

“We, South Asian journalists are expressing serious concern at the debilitating political environment between the two big neighbours of the region and the imminent danger of armed confrontation,” remarked journalists in a consolidated voice after the workshop.

The workshop participanted by 16 journalist from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as well as senior media trainers, discussed and expressed their concerns over the worsening political scenario looming over the whole region.

They also showed their firm commitment to promote Press Freedom with responsibility at a time when most of the countries or regions are plagued by internal conflicts, threat of terrorism and violence. It was further added that journalists of the region are committed to fostering the culture of peace and tolerance among outsized communities.

At the workshop, the journalists emphasized the need to develop a regional network of community media practitioners, which could be instrumental in promoting the experience of professionals, information sharing and fostering mutual understandings.

Krishna M Timilsiana, executive director of Nepal Press Institute (NPI) and general secretary of Council of Asia-Pacific Press Institutes (CAPPI) noted that journalists have an important role within local societies to provide a ‘voice to voiceless people’, especially since community and small newspapers are now facing hard times and are struggling to maintain their existence due to the extra-local editions of national and international publications.

He further added that during the workshop, participants as well as trainers talked about possible ways by which the community newspapers could sustain by means of benefiting newly introduced technologies.

CAPPI and NPI had organized the workshop in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), Singapore.