The process of making and breaking alliances is underway for the Lahore Press Club Election 2024. Progressive and Professional groups are trying their best to bring their groups into the field, but if we look at the outcomes of past elections, only strong groups have won, and this time the result will be no different.
This year, EMRA has also fielded its candidate for the Lahore Press Club elections. Every group has been making different claims that they will take various measures to reform journalists, but for the Lahore Press Club, perhaps the journalist colony is the first and last problem.
In today’s digital age, I doubt if any modern digital media department has been established, like the one in Karachi Press Club. Have cameramen and reporters been equipped with modern technology? Every official has focused more on their personal growth rather than collective progress.
Some time ago, I met a senior member of the press club who was not familiar with modern technology. When I asked if educated people in digital media should also be given limited membership, their immediate response was, ‘Then where will we go?’
“I repeatedly told another senior member that online news is making its mark globally, and you should also introduce digital media in the press club. But nothing ever came of it. Despite having state-of-the-art newsrooms and working in digital media,
Press Club office-bearers have failed to create even a website for the club over the years. There are no professional social media pages either. If you need any information related to the press club, you won’t find any online platform available.
For the past several years, even the election results have been obtained through WhatsApp groups rather than the official Lahore Press Club website.
I hope the new panel will announce a plan of action in their charter to make the press club modern and digital.”
