Elections are to be held in the year 2013. The government will be supporting free and fair elections throughout the country. Pakistan being a democratic state will be piloting elections as to choose a new government to rule through organized methods. In time of such need, Women Media Center took a step of organizing a workshop on Election reporting to cater the needs of the journalists and students studying media sciences and communication.

Prominent speakers from media graced the Election Reporting workshop. They were very encouraging and supportive of all the female participants attending the workshop.

“The reporters are more at risk during the coverage of elections than on the coverage of any other events. The people can use their words to provoke or harass female reporters and in such situation they should immediately report to their senior. It is said in our field that when you are threatened expose the one who threatens you”. Mr. Habib, Bureau Chief of Dunya News channel and Anchor, said while emphasizing on safety of the reporters especially female reporters. He further added, “The journalists who work fairly and objectively they grow in the field of journalism”.

Another well-known speaker at the workshop was a senior journalist Reuters, Pakistan and a teacher at Beacon House University, Mubashir bukhari He said, “The reporters should divide the election coverage into phases pre-election phase and post-election phase coverage. Beside this the reporters should have prior knowledge about election previously held in the past years”.

Moreover, senior journalist of Geo News Network, Agha Iftekhar Ahmed communicated his experiences with the eager audience and said, “The reporters should play fair while covering elections or any other event. They should be vigilant and must have details about everything related to the elections”.

A distinguished member of Provincial Assembly, Saajda Mir talked about how women are playing vital role in development of Pakistan. She said “Women presence in the Provincial and National assembly has made 3 to 4 bills passed and now they are trying to get through domestic violence against women bill approved”. She criticized, “Gender discrimination is something prevailing in our society. Even media shows discrimination to the working class women, their work is not highlighted as of the elites”.

The event ended with a showcase ceremony. Fawad chaudhry, advisor to Prime Minister distributed the certificates among the participants.

This seven-day workshop on Election Reporting was held from 19th of December to 25th of December 2012 in Lahore at Hotel Ambassador. This workshop was in collaboration with National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Washington USA. The main aim of this workshop was to train all the participants with the basic techniques of scripting, editing, camera handling and reporting. The workshop was a success. The feedback from the participants made it clear that Women Media Center was able to delivered it objectives.