The University of Peshawar in collaboration with Deutshe Welle Academy Germany is going to establish a psychological trauma Centre for Journalists reporting in hard areas at the Department of Psychology.
The trauma Centre would provide psychotherapy to the journalists working in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA so as to overcome the aftermaths of tragic events.
This was decided in a meeting of the visiting Deutche Welle Academy country manager Ms. Karin Schadler with Vice Chancellor UoP Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rasul Jan. Chairman Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Prof. Dr. Altafullah and Dr. Erym Irshad Chairperson Department of Psychology also attended.
Journalists witnesses tragic events much closer to them and it is natural for them to face psychological traumas, said Vice Chancellor Uop Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rasul Jan while talking to the delegation. The Vice Chancellor added that the Journalists working in hard areas have kept their lives at risk for the sake of passing real time information to the general public.
He called for following of a strict code of conduct and ethics to manage breaking news so that unseen hands could not benefit from the real life information provided in it.
A core group comprising members from the academia, President Peshawar Press Club and the Khyber Union of Journalist has been formed to start the psychological trauma centre in September this year, said Ms. Karin Schadler. She added the journalists would be given Psychological kits for psycho management of untoward happenings besides therapy in the psychology department.
Prof. Altafullah informed that several orientation sessions and a gallop survey would be conducted among the Journalist community to find out the type of psychological problems faced by the journalists.
He added the aim of the trauma centre is to keep the journalists community mentally fit and not let their psychological traumas effect the reporting of an event or news being published.
Source: The Frontier Post.
