PAKISTAN OBSERVES THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ETHICS DAY 2012

PAKISTAN OBSERVES THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ETHICS DAY 2012

Media practitioners around the world built consensus on the need to realize the significance of globalization, understand socio-political, cultural and religious values, which strengthens the fundamental rights of individuals and societies.

2nd International Media Ethics Day 2012
(L to R) Puruesh Chaudhary, Amjad Hussain,
Shafqat Abbasi, Dr. Anjum Zia and Amir Jahangir

Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with the Center for International Media Ethics (CIME) and the Center for Media Research and Development celebrate the second International Media Ethics Day in Pakistan at the Royal Palm Country Club, Lahore.

CIME Ambassador, PurueshChaudhary in her opening remarks said “the media industry, think tanks, academia, civil society organizations, public and private need to realize the significance of globalization, understand the social, cultural, political and religious values, which strengthens the fundamental rights of individuals and societies”.

Joining the debate on ethical dilemmas and the future of journalism were Adrian Monck, Director Communications at the World Economic Forum, Kirsten Mogensen, Assistant Professor Roskilde University, Amjad Hussain Honorary Executive Director and Founder, Center for Media Research and Development, Shafqat Abbasi, Chairman Press Council of Pakistan, Amir Jahangir, CEO Mishal Pakistan, Dr. Anjum Zia, Chairperson Mass Communication Department Lahore College Women University.

The aim of the Media Ethics Day is to mobilize the journalism community and provide journalists around the world with an opportunity to discuss the challenges faced on the media ethics issues, examine case studies, and participate in role-plays and debates related to the various ethical dilemmas they might expect to face on the job.

From the World Economic Forum, Adrian Monck said the future of journalism is digital and data. The hope for journalism is being more data focused and a more digital savvy group of people who still want to bring interesting information to the public domain, who have skills and the tools to successfully share knowledge”. I hope that the journalism education can be that bridge, he further added.

In 2011, there were more than 300 participants in 11 countries, this year the event has doubled in size, with 23 locations globally. Amjad Hussain, Honorary Executive Director and Founder, Center for Media Research and Development, said there is a need to create more industry-academia linkages, which can foster collaborations to enable a knowledge-based society.

Amir Jahangir, CEO Mishal Pakistan, on the occasion said the Pakistani information ecosystem needs to develop a mechanism, which can distinguish between good and bad journalism. Only then the society can appreciate the quality of ethical journalism in the country. A media credibility barometer or index can ensure in raising the bar of journalism standards in the country.

Participants of the 2nd International Media Ethics Day 2012, Lahore - Pakistan

The CIME Forum also organizes an annual event that brings together media professionals for training, panels and discussion in ethical practices. The Forum is held each year in a different region in the world, in order to reach a wider community of journalists and connect ethical issues of local relevance with those of the broader international media community.

The interactive event was attended by a diverse segment of society, consisting of professionals from media, academia, think tanks and intellectuals.

The International Media Ethics Day is being celebrated in: Albania (Tirana), Benin (Cotonou), Cameroon (Yaoundé), Ghana (Accra), Germany (Calw /Baden-Württemberg), Hungary (Budapest), Ivory Coast (Abidjan), India (Jamshedpur), Myanmar (Mandalay), Nepal (Kathmandu), Nigeria (Lagos), Nigeria (Mkar), Pakistan (Lahore and Islamabad), Peru (Monterrico), Romania (Iasi), Russia (Moscow), Vanuatu, Afghanistan (Herat), Nigeria (Abuja); Palestine (Birzeit); Uganda (Mbarara); Argentina (Buenos Aires)

The Center for International Media Ethics - CIME, a non-profit organization with staff members operating across several continents teamed up with Mishal Pakistan, a social enterprise, specializing in media and communication for policy design in a bid to bring together a network of journalists and students in Pakistan to provide training, discussion and expertise in the ethics of their profession.

CIME and Mishal Pakistan, along with several other stakeholders intend to promote respect for truth, accuracy and privacy by engaging relevant stakeholders to create dialogue on ethical practices through training programmes on quality reporting that results in educating the public. The two organizations would drive the emphasis that journalists together have the power to formulate a tacit code of ethics as a status quo of their profession, which is evolved and observed, mutually by the community, the regulatory authority and relevant stakeholders.

Pakistan Loses its Competitiveness on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013

Pakistan Loses its Competitiveness on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013

Falls 6 points on the Global Competitiveness Ranking, 124 among 144 economies

Pakistan has been ranked among bottom 20 of the 144 economies around the world in The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013, released today by the World Economic Forum.

According to the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2012-13, Pakistan lacks a long-term view of competitiveness. The level of corruption and poor governance are some of the factors slowing down Pakistan’s economic growth, therefore ranking Pakistan at 124 among 144 other countries on the index. The World Economic Forum ranks countries on more than 100 economic indicators comparing 144 countries.

Klaus Schwab,
Founder and Executive Chairman,
World Economic Forum 

“Persisting divides in competitiveness across regions and within regions, particularly in Europe, are at the origin of the turbulence we are experiencing today, and this is jeopardizing our future prosperity.” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum. “We urge governments to act decisively by adopting long-term measures to enhance competitiveness and return the world to a sustainable growth path.”

Pakistan’s secured ranking on 12 pillars: institutions (115), infrastructure (116), macroeconomic environment (139), Health and Primary Education (117) Higher Education and Training (124), Goods Market Efficiency (97), Labor Market Efficiency (130) Financial Market Development (73), Technological Readiness (118), Market Size (30), Business Sophistication (78) and Innovation (77).

Amir Jahangir
Chief Executive Officer
Mishal Pakistan,
Young Global Leader,
World Economic Forum

‘Pakistan has lost its competitive advantage almost on all the pillars of the competitiveness index except for in Health, Primary Education and Labor market Efficiency’ says Amir Jahangir Chief Executive Officer Mishal Pakistan, countrypartner for the Center of Global Competitiveness and Performance at the World Economic Forum. Further adding, although Pakistan showed good performance on the innovation and sophistication pillars, but on the factors for basic requirements and efficiency enhancer pillars Pakistan continues to show poor performance.

The Pakistani business community has identified Corruption as the most problematic factor for doing business in the country. The report indicates that Pakistan has failed to come up with effective regulations on intellectual property protection, where the country lost its position of 93 to 108 from 2011 to 2012 respectively. Poor governance in terms of favoritism in decision-making (129) and wastefulness of government spending (96) have also shown significant decline in rankings. The Efficiency of Legal Framework in Challenging Regulations has also impacted the competiveness of Pakistan’s economy as it has declined from 79 in 2011 to 97 in 2012.

The law and order situation has been a serious threat to the economic activities, with war on terror and other target killing issues impacting throughout the year, the Reliability of Police Service has gone to 127 in the current year as compared to 116 in the last year. 

On the Macroeconomic Pillar the government’s performance has been weak with the budget balance ranking (% of GDP) deteriorating from 108 to 125 from 2011 to 2012 respectively. The general government debt has also seen poor performance as it has lost 11 points from last year, by being ranked at 107 in the current year.

Although Pakistan ranked 41 in 2011 on the Tax Collection Efficiency index, however the economy has lost its competitive advantage due to decline in 2012 by ranking to 59, limitations on the ease of access to loans and venture capital availability, where Pakistan stands at 65 and 55 respectively.

The labor market efficiency pillar shows a decline in the cooperation between labor and employer relations whereas the rank has slipped from 80 to 90. The GCR also identifies that the businesses in Pakistan are shying away from reliance on professional management as the ranking has decreased from 88 to 101.

  

Although Pakistan has seen some improvement on the broadband usage, but the individual internet usage has declined, ranking the country at 120 in 2012 from 98 in 2011. The government’s procurement of advanced tech products has not been a priority where it showed deterioration from 91 to 109 this year as compared to last year.

The state of cluster development has also been neglected and reflects in the report where the rank has plunged from 48 to 62. The commercialization of research has not been a priority in Pakistan, where the industry university collaboration has also seen negative fall from 69 to 81.

Nonetheless, Pakistan has also shown some positive indicators on improving its competitiveness, where the burden of government regulation has improved from 76 in 2011 to 62 this year, similarly the transparency of government policy making has also been improved from ranking of 119 to 109. The country credit rating index has also improved from 123 this year to 116 compared to last year.

The economy has shown flexibility in the hiring and firing practices where it has improved the rank from 33 last year to 21 this year. The pay and productivity index has also shown gains where Pakistan has improved 13 points and ranks at 73.

The report has shown significant improvements on the performance of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where Pakistan has shown improvements on the regulations of securities exchanges by being ranked 55 as compared to 70 last year.

Switzerland, for the fourth consecutive year, tops the overall rankings in The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 Singapore remains in second position and Finland in third position, overtaking Sweden (4th). These and other Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with the Netherlands (5th), Germany (6th) and United Kingdom (8th). The United States (7th), Hong Kong (9th) and Japan (10th) complete the ranking of the top 10 most competitive economies.

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 
Professor of Economics,
Columbia University, USA 

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, USA, said: “The Global Competitiveness Index provides a window on the long-term trends that are shaping the competitiveness of the world’s economies. In this light, we believe it offers useful insight into the key areas where countries must act if they are to optimize the productivity that will determine their economic future.”

The report indicates that Switzerland and countries in Northern Europe have been consolidating their strong competitiveness positions since the financial and economic downturn in 2008. On the other hand, countries in Southern Europe, i.e. Portugal (49th), Spain (36th), Italy (42nd) and particularly Greece (96th) continue to suffer from competitiveness weaknesses in terms of macroeconomic imbalances, poor access to financing, rigid labour markets and an innovation deficit.

Despite growing its overall competitiveness score, the United States continues its decline for the fourth year in a row, falling two more places to seventh position. In addition to the burgeoning macroeconomic vulnerabilities, some aspects of the country’s institutional environment continue to raise concern among business leaders, particularly the low public trust in politicians and a perceived lack of government efficiency. On a more positive note, the US still remains a global innovation powerhouse and its markets work efficiently.

The large emerging market economies (BRICS) displayed different performances. Despite a slight decline in the rankings of three places, the People’s Republic of China (29th) continues to lead the group. Of the others, only Brazil (48th) moves up this year, with South Africa (52nd), India (59th) and Russia (67th) experiencing small declines in rankings.

In the Middle East and North Africa, Qatar (11th) leads the region while Saudi Arabia remains among the top 20 (18th). The United Arab Emirates (24th) improves its performance while Kuwait (37th) slightly declines. Morocco (70th) and Jordan (63rd) improve slightly. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa (52nd) and Mauritius (54th) feature in the top half of the rankings. However, most countries in the region continue to require efforts across the board to improve their competitiveness.

The Global Competitiveness Report’s competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which was first developed for the World Economic Forum by Sala-i-Martin, a co-author of this year’s report, in 2004. Defining competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country, GCI scores are calculated by drawing together public and private data around 12 key categories – the pillars of competitiveness – that together make up a comprehensive picture of a country’s competitiveness.

Mishal Pakistan is the country partner Institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Performance at the World Economic Forum. World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Read the Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 at http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-competitiveness