A Round-Table Dialogue entitled ‘Strengthening Governance in Health Sector : Present Status, Opportunities, Challenges & Way Forward-The Role of Health Journalists’ was held on 4 January, organized by Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication-BNNRC) and supported by The Asia Foundation.
This program is a part of the project : Promoting Health Governance through Capacity Building of Journalists and Involving Multi-level Stakeholders.
A total of 45 participants including representatives of civil society organizations, government officials, news editors, and journalists from Dhaka and outside of Dhaka were present in the dialogue organized at the Azimur Rahman Conference Room in The Daily Star Bhaban, Dhaka.
The objective of the dialogue is to create a positive atmosphere in media houses for reporting on health-connected issues and thus to strengthen governance in the health sector. Among the guests and participants, the Director General of the Press Institute of Bangladesh-PIB Zafar Wazed, the Director & Head of PET-CT, National Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Science, BSMMU-NINMAS Dr Shamim Momtaz Ferdousi Begum, The Country Representative of The Asia Foundation Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj, the Senior Program Manager of The Asia Foundation MD Zakaria, Program Manager (Lymphatic Filariasis & STH & LD) of Directorate General of Health Services-DGHS M M Aktaruzzaman, Deputy Program Manager-NCDC 6 of DGHS Dr Rahat Iqbal Chowdhury, representatives of journalists from Sylhet, Jashore, Barishal, Pabna, Noakhali and Rangpur; and the journalists of reputed newspapers, television and online media delivered their short speeches.
The President of Bangladesh Health Reporters’ Forum M M Rashed Rabbi of the Daily Amader Somoy, Joint Editor of Daily Prothom Alo Sohrab Hassan, City Editor of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha-BSS Kanai Chakraborty, Editor (Diplomatic Affairs) of Daily Ittefaq and Joint Secretary of National Press Club Mainul Alam, Chief Reporter of Nagorik TV Shahnaz Sharmeen, Zannatul Bakiya Keka of Channel I, Mahmud Komol of Maasranga Television; Chief News Editor of News24 Shahnaz Munni & others also talked about some important points relevant to the subject of the session.
The Editor in Chief & Chief Executive Officer of TV Today Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul moderated the whole session. At the beginning of the seminar, he introduced the participants to the seminar and said that we can see some real pictures of the field level through the representatives of six districts. He also expressed his expectation that if some specialized health journalists can emerge, who will be dedicated to covering the health bit only then these kinds of discussions will succeed and will reach the target.
The Country Representative of The Asia Foundation Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj conveyed his greetings to all the participants and said, Balancing between sensitivity and information is very much important in public dealing and the journalists accomplish this difficult task.
Then AHM Bazlur Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of BNNRC, said that the purpose of today’s dialogue is to discuss the Present Status of Health Services, Opportunities, Challenges and Way Forward to improve the capacity of the health sector. He said, ‘Under this initiative, we have provided 25 health journalists (ToT) Training of Trainers and 85 journalists in 4 regional trainings have been given ideas on fact-checking and evaluation techniques in health reporting. 6 seminars have been completed at the district and divisional levels. Moreover, under this initiative, 50 Health Journalists of print, electronic and online media in Dhaka and outside of Dhaka have been awarded to enable them to produce in-depth reports on health issues. 200 reports are being prepared under the fellowship.’
Public health expert and consultant Rehan Uddin Ahmed Raju presented the informative keynote paper on the topic and the project. After the presentation of the keynote, the participants took part in a lively open discussion and provided their valuable opinions and suggestions on health issues.
It is hoped that the issues raised due to the speech and open discussion at the round table dialogue will be able to play a helpful and effective role in encouraging news editors and journalists to publish or broadcast constructive reports on health connected issues and consequently in this way, ensuring quality healthcare for all and will draw the attention of the policymakers.
BNNRC is in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council-ECOSOC accredited with the World Summit on the Information Society-WSIS, SDGs Media Compact of the United Nations, and UN WSIS prize winner 2016, Champion 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021. BNNRC’s approach to media development is both knowledge-driven and context-sensitive, and it takes into account the challenges and opportunities created by the rapidly changing media environment in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. BNNRC
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