Membership and media training
The Pakistan Christian Journalists Forum is open to Christian journalists in Pakistan, to students of journalism and to media workers who share its aims. Members work together on the cases of their districts; the training and mentorship programme prepares young Christian writers to report by the law.
Who can join
Working journalists
Reporters, editors, photographers and broadcasters from the Christian community, in print, radio, television or online, from any district of Pakistan.
Students and trainees
Students of journalism and mass communication, and young writers who run a page or a channel that serves their community.
Media workers
Producers, camera operators, designers, social-media managers and others who work in the media and share the aims of the Forum.
- Verification of your reports by colleagues in your district and by the desk
- Access to the Forum's case files and legal notes on blasphemy, forced conversion and child-marriage law
- Colleagues to call when you are threatened for your reporting
- Publication of your verified reports under the Forum's name
- Training, mentorship and a place at the Forum's meetings
- A voice in a non-political, non-profit organisation working within the laws of Pakistan
Learning to report by the law
The programme teaches young Christian journalists what a case file needs: the sections of the Penal Code, how an FIR is written, how a court file is read, how to protect a source and a victim, and how to write what happened without anger and without rumour.
- The law a reporter needs: sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code, the child-marriage laws of each province, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992, the Constitution
- The first record of a case: what to ask, what to keep, what to photograph
- Verification: the second source, the police record, the court file
- Protecting people: minors, victims, sources, families in hiding
- Writing and publishing: the report, the statement, the follow-up
- Mentorship: each trainee works beside a senior member of the Forum