by M. Gokoolaram Naidu for ICW
Following unprecedented levels of Non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs) activities in Ipoh City that lacked exposure and the growing links between NGO’s and civil society movements, Ipoh City Watch (ICW) took the lead to organize a one of its kind forum entitled “Role of Media in Enhancing the NGOs Abilities to Serve The Community” on 22.08.10 at the Perak Women for Women (PWW) headquarters in Ipoh.
Jointly organized by PWW and Perak Legal Aid Centre, the turnout exceeded expectations as 76 participants from 25 NGOs/organization were present, some as early 7.30 a.m. There were no problems in starting the event on time as all seats in the hall were occupied by 9 a.m. The turnout in part was spurred by a publicity overdrive by the organizing chairman/emcee M. Gokoolaram Naidu and his team.
Four media professionals came together from, The Malaysian Insider, New Straits Times, ECHO and MalaysiaKini as panelist to highlight the media’s abilities and willingness to highlight the NGOs role. The four topics discussed at length at the Forum were, “Internet News Portal: Is It doing Enough for NGOs” by Clara Chooi, “Mainstream Media: What is it’s Future” by Jaspal Singh, “Contribution of Community Newspaper to the community” by Fathol Zaman Bukhari and “Power of Video Journalism” by citizen journalist G.V. Shan.
An independent and critical press highlighting the NGOs abilities is a prerequisite for a thriving civil society movement especially in a city like Ipoh and part of ICW’s support got it’s President Augustine Anthony involved in facilitating this dialogue between NGOs and the media professionals. This will in turn assist in raising public awareness through the media platforms. The culmination of the Forum was a question and answer session opened to the floor whereby the panelists answered 13 questions.
Judging by the the success of this event, it is strongly felt that this may mark the start of a series of joint-events between the NGOs in the near future.