Justice, harmony guarantees peace: experts opine at IBA conference.

KARACHI -- In her introductory remarks to kick-off the two-day media conferebce, IBA's Director Ms Amber Rahim Shamsi said without political satire and freedom of speech and quality journalism, the world has become a dangerous place to live.

' Peace isn't just the absence of conflict, it's conditions where justice, equity, and harmony can flourish. Journalists don't broker peace that's the job of the politicians and frankly they're not doing a great job of settling among disputes themselves - journalists help those seeking justice, and highlight inequity,' she said.

Meanwhile, social media had turbo-charged the politics of conflict and populism. We live in a world where heroes were easy to manufacture and villains even easier to vilify in social media.

Besides, she questioned , why we promote harmony when polarization gets the access to the power and fame, the clicks and ratings. That is one of the many questions we can find an answer at this conference. Also another fundamental question was, why do we still need journalism when we could not even assume that people learn about the fast changing world through good journalism.

The first day kicked off with a powerful session titled 'do we need journalism?' Moderated by journalist Shahzeb Jillani, the powerhouse panel which included Lok Sujag's Chief Editor Badar Alam, BBC's Zeeshan Haider and Geo's Benazir Shah.

The panel discussed the grim reality of the state of journalism in Pakistan and how important it is for the country now and in the future.

Haider said that it wasn't a question about creditability but trust. 'A user is now basing news preference on if they like/dislike the person sharing the news (which is essentially their opinion). Verification...