For immediate release

WAN-IFRA Appoints Representative in Bangladesh

To take WAN-IFRA services closer to publishers in the country

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has appointed Drik Picture Library Ltd., the leading picture and news agency of Bangladesh, as its representative in the country, in a move to bring WAN-IFRA’s services closer to local publishers.

As each country in the Indian sub-continent displays unique characteristics and challenges, the representation will help to address the specific needs of Bangladesh’s publishers and will include local media events and training.

“‘We are very happy to appoint Drik Picture Library as our representative in Bangladesh,” said Magdoom Mohamed, Managing Director of WAN-IFRA South Asia. “Our relations with Dr. Shahidul Alam, Managing Director of Drik Picture Library, goes back to more than 8 years and we share some common ideas of what needs to be done to help improve the media industry in Bangladesh. We are confident that this relation will go a long way, and, with Drik’s respected position in the country, it will enable seamless rendering of all WAN-IFRA services to the publishers in the country.”

Dr. Shahidul Alam said: “Drik has found a natural partner in WAN-IFRA, as both are trade organizations with a human right’s mandate. The Newspapers in Education programme is also an area where the mutual interest in media and education of both organisations provide synergy. Drik’s pioneering role in new media and ICT creates a clear path for the partnership to utilise the dynamism in Asian media and propel it to new heights.”

WAN-IFRA already has a publisher member in Bangladesh, The Independent daily newspaper.

This year, WAN-IFRA will organise its twentieth annual South Asian Conference, WAN-IFRA India 2012, on September 26 and 27 at Pune, India. The conference will address the challenges and opportunities for news publishers in the region and provide a direction into the future of the news publishing industry in the region.

WAN-IFRA South Asia, based in Chennai, India, manages services offered to the members and publishers in the South Asian region. 

About WAN-IFRA

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.

For more information, please contact: Magdoom Mohamed, Managing Director, WAN-IFRA South Asia Pvt. Ltd., 54 K B Dasan Rd, SIET Administrative Building, 3^rd Floor, Chennai 600 018, India (T:+91.44.4211 2893 F:+91.44.2435 9744). Email:infoindia@wan-ifra.org (or) Dr.Shahidul Alam, Managing Director, Drik Picture Library Ltd., House No.58, Road 15A, Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh (T:+880.2.9120 125). Email: office@drik.net

Editor’s note: Storytellers have always been inventive people. While evangelists fight over whether original pixels are intact in a modern photograph, it is worth looking at how people have embraced the new technology to create compelling images that amuse, provoke and occasionally push us into action.

Pathshala South Asian Media Academy is an internationally reputed institute. The Broadcast and Multimedia Department of Pathshala provides short courses to those who are looking for a job in the electronic media or have just started their career in the broadcast industry. At the moment Pathshala is working on a MA programme in Broadcast Journalism that will be offered from September 2012.

For the Broadcast and Multimedia Department, Pathshala is looking for a ‘Faculty Moderator/Tutor’

Key responsibilities:

Operate as full time tutor
Coordinate the work of other tutors
Coach students and trainees
Ensure the continuity and quality of classes

Requirements:

MA (preferably in journalism) with at least 5 years experience in Broadcast Journalism
Affinity with teaching and with Pathshala
Communicative

Salary:

Negotiable

Send your CV to:

Shah Sazzad Hossain
Manager (Admin & Finance)

Last date for submission: 16^st December 2011

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The inaugural talk at the Pop Tech Conference in Maine on 20th October 2011

Bangladesh Human Rights Portal revived

After the highly successful workshop : “Learning rights to make a difference” conducted by Drik and Internews, the Bangladesh Human Rights Portal has been revived. With the ongoing training programme with World Press Photo “Press Freedom 2.o” over the next five years, www.banglarights.net is set to play an important role in promoting the rights of citizens in Bangladesh.

We have a very exciting team consisting of Chulie De Silva, Sohel Manzur and Aminuzzaman running the programme with D.J. Clark playing a mentoring role.

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Pathshala – South Asian Media Academy was established in Dhaka in 1998 to fulfill the long felt need for providing institutional education in photography in Bangladesh. Today Pathshala is one of the premier institutes of photography in Asia. With a visiting faculty consisting of the finest professionals in the world, the school boasts a teaching programme that is second to none. Students have won major international awards (World Press Photo, Asahi Shimbun, National Geographic All Roads Contest etc.) and take on assignments for the most prestigious international publications (Time Magazine, Newsweek). Within a short period, Pathshala has established itself as a regional centre for excellence in photography, attracting students from India, Nepal, Norway, Denmark, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, the UK and Zimbabwe. Pathshala is affiliated to Bolton University (UK), the Danish School of Journalism and Sunderland University (UK).

Pathshala invites application and portfolio from interested students for enrollment in the

Three years professional course on photography.

Eligibility/ Admission Requirement:

- HSC / A level (Minimum Second class / GPA 2.5)
- Fluent in spoken and written English
- Completion of basic or foundation course in photography
- Portfolio with ten photographs (Size: 8″x10″)
- Curriculum vita with two referees
- Two passport and two stamp size photographs
- Brief written explanation justifying interest in the programme

Important Dates:

Portfolio Submission deadline: 25th September, 2011

Interview: 27th September 2011

Interview Result: 27th September 2011

Admission deadline: 29th September 2011

Class starts: 9th October 2011
For more information please see, www.pathshala.net.

Hasib Zakaria
Vice Principal
Pathshala South Asian Media Academy

PhD Researcher
Archeology & Art
Vrije University Brussels
Belgium

By ANDREA RICE

Photographs by Taslima Akhter

The garment industry is one of the largest industrial sectors in Bangladesh. It accounts for a good portion of the country’s exports and employs more than three million workers. Most of them are women.

“Workers toil from dawn to dusk on minimum wage,” said Taslima Akhter, a Bangladeshi photographer who has spent more than four years capturing the workers’ movement for “The Life and Struggle of Garment Workers.”

Ms. Akhter, 37, was compelled to bring to light some of the industry’s darker aspects, like dangerous working conditions and low salaries. As an activist, a photographer and a resident of Bangladesh, she sees the ongoing project as both a personal agenda and a civic duty.

Ms. Akhter said she believed that the struggle of garment workers — particularly women — was one of the country’s most pressing issues. A transition to democracy in Bangladesh would raise questions about women’s rights, she said, expressing hope that her project could help speed the country toward that goal  — and inspire the workers to make their own voices be heard.

In 2006, garment workers in Bangladesh made less than $25 per month, Ms. Akhter said. Following a tremendous protest in 2010, their wages increased to just under $45 monthly – still not a living wage.

That strike — and the number of women who participated — drove Ms. Akhter to continue her work on the project, most of which she photographed in and around her hometown, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. (Outside Dhaka, she shot in Gazipur, to the north, and Narayanganj, to the east.) Ms. Akhter studied photojournalism at the Pathshala South Asian Media Academy in Dhaka in 2007. She completed a master’s degree in philosophy from theUniversity of Dhaka. She just completed a six-week course on photography and human rights at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts as part of a Magnum Foundation scholarship she was awarded in 2010.

15 August, 2011

For Immediate Use

UQ to host international photojournalist advocate’s public discussion

Internationally renowned Bangladeshi photographer, writer and activist Dr Shahidul Alam will lead a free public discussion next week, hosted by The University of Queensland’s Centre of Communication and Social Change, School of Journalism and Communication.

Dr Alam will discuss the role of ‘the visual’ in communication for social change at the James Birrell Room of the UQ Staff Club on Tuesday August 23 at 5.30pm.

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Kelly Higgins-Devine interviews Shahidul Alam

The Audio file of the ABC Radio interview

Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munier amongst five killed in road accident.

Drik mourns the death of two dear friends, the injuries of three others and the numerous deaths of their colleagues and the thousands of uncounted others who regularly die as a result of negligence, corruption and the wanton irresponsibility of those who are in charge of keeping our roads safe.

Tareque Masud, one of the finest film makers this nation has produced. Mishuk Munier, a talented cameraperson and a media professional who had both the dreams and the ability to change the way reporting was done, died a brutal death as they were returning to Dhaka having chosen the location for their next film.

Catherine, Tareque’s equally talented wife, the producer of the Oscar nominated film Matir Moina, artist Dhali Al Mamoon, who had given the inaugural Golam Kasem Daddy lecture on Drik’s 20th anniversary, and his painter wife Dilara Begum Jolly are in hospital recovering from multiple injuries. Dhali’s condition is critical.

Obituary on Guardian UK