"Journalists could help ending conflicts that is why their role in a society is of vital importance," Saeedi told journalists here at the concluding session of a workshop.
The 10-day workshop on "Objective journalism for defusing conflicts" was jointly organised by Internews' Pak-Afghan Cross Border Training (PACT) and Media Training and Research Center (MTRC) of the Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Peshawar. Around 16 journalists from Balochistan and Afghanistan's Qandooz, Maimana, Mazar Sharif and Khost areas participated in the workshop.
Saeedi said that Pakistan had passed through around 30-years of unrest and turmoil and no cultural activity was encouraged during this period.
He asked the journalists to use their training for highlighting problems of the states instead of focusing on minor issues. He said that journalists should perform their professional duties without any ethnic, sectarian or religious bias.
"It is a good initiative taken by the PACT and Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and I appreciate it because it will go a long way helping these journalists in bringing the people of the two countries much closer to each other," he said.
Saeedi also appealed to the Afghan Government to make arrangements for holding such workshops in Afghanistan where journalists from both the countries could get training. "This process should be continuous on both sides of the border which will further strengthen bonds of brotherhood between the two nations," he said.
Dr Shah Jehan Syed, Chairman Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Peshawar, said that the two-week training workshop was of vital importance as it provided an opportunity to journalists from different regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan to sit together and understand each other. "Good and cordial Pak-Afghan relations are dependent on practical implementation of your training," he told the participants of the seminar.
He said that journalists should work for the establishment of peace in the region in future.
John Butt, Project Director of PACT said that the workshop comes up with concrete guidelines, as to how journalists could work freely, while also conscious of their responsibilities to society, in particular with regard to avoid conflict.