Safdar Dawar | Voices

Tanqeed sat down with Safdar Dawar, the general secretary of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ). Based out of Peshawar, the TUJ represents 300 journalists operating out of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and boasts 13 press clubs in an area generally off-limits to the rest of the world–including the average Pakistani.

Transcript: English

Audio (اردو):

We spoke to Dawar about the TUJ, and its role in bringing together journalists from the length and breadth of tribal Pakistan. We also talked to him about his attempts to join the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), a powerful body that represents journalists across the country, and negotiates increases in salaries and better working conditions for their members. Though PFUJ stands in solidarity with TUJ when it comes to, for example, protests in Peshawar, they refuse to give tribal journalists full membership, and, thus, full access to the benefits enjoyed by the rest of their members–including increases in salaries. The entrance of international donors has further distanced the TUJ from the PFUJ–Dawar sees no reason to continue insisting on solidarity from the PFUJ, when the TUJ can stand on its own two feet.

Hear (in Urdu), or read (in English), Safdar Dawar on Tanqeed. The third in Tanqeed’s interview series, Voices.

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Tags: issue III, media, pakistan federal union of journalists, PFUJ, safdar dawar, tribal union of journalists, TUJ, voices

This entry was posted on Feb 2013 at 8:00 AM and is filed under FATA, Issue III: Solidarity Politics, Voices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.