Young trainees the first-hand exposure on media and its workings, a one day field trip was also organized to different media outlets including an advertising agency: ATETUDE, Geo Television, Mast FM 103 Karachi Station, and The News Karachi. Youth trainees had a lunch meeting at the Karachi Press Club hosted by the Club’s President Mr. Amir Latif and other prominent senior journalists.

The five day training sessions were planned keeping the needs of trainees and noteworthy facilitators took different sessions including Dr. Salman Asif (Gender Advisor – UN Pakistan), Ms. Sadia Ata Mohammad
(UNFPA National Youth Specialist), Dr. Rakhshanda Parveen (gender and media expert), Ms. Tasneem Ahmar ( Director Uks), Mohammad Rafique Ahmed Feica (Cartoonist and Station Manager Mast 103, Karachi), Ms. Fareeha Barohi (Gender expert) and Ms. Saadia Haq (Uks Project Coordinator and Radio Producer).

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This was for the first time in the history of FM radio in Pakistan that a training of this nature was organized providing an opportunity to FM radio producers and hosts to learn and share their own experiences on how radio could be used for Peace building. Though quite extensive, the training looked at Peace building not as a one-time activity but as a process that occurs on multiple levels, personal, community and national and how radio can facilitate this process. Participants assessed radio’s role in today’s Pakistan from a peace and conflict perspective, shared their experiences of how radio programming can be geared towards promoting coexistence and tolerance in Pakistani society. It explored  issues from how do conflicts become violent and how does conflict end to exploring Common Ground Approaches to Talk shows, identifying and defining target audiences to how to reach objectives of gaining Knowledge that would help change attitudes and then behaviours leading to a peaceful and tolerant Pakistan.

The workshop was the first of the series of more trainings and networking geared towards “National Radio Partnership for Peace” a national initiative to raise the profile of FM radio stations in Pakistan and building the capacity of FM radio stations in Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Azad Jammu & Kashmir to empower them to use dialogue as a way of addressing local issues and to promote peace in their respective communities.  The initiative also aims to offer a major platform for the FM radio stations across Pakistan to highlight their important role in building peaceful and prosperous local communities. The platform will offer an opportunity for the radio stations for a dialogue amongst themselves; share experiences and success stories with each other and build their technical capacities.

So far over 40 FM channels have signed MoUs with Uks and Intermedia- the project’s two implementing partners to cooperate in the execution of the project which includes a series of events and opportunities for Pakistan’s radio sector, including a National Summit of FM Radio Stations in Islamabad that took place in June 2010 and can be described as the largest gathering of radio stations in Pakistan’s history, aiming to create consensus on improving professional standards and developing thematic expertise in the country’s dynamic and burgeoning radio sector.

PANOS South Asia- Pakistan Office in collaboration with Uks Research Centre on Women & Media has undertaken a project March-December 2010, to reach out and educate the young people most at risk in cities through innovative sexual and reproductive health programming.

Uks Research Resource and Publication Centre in Collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNPA) organized an orientation session on “Changing the Mindsets on Gender-Based Violence” here on Saturday. Youth from around the county, gender experts and senior media persons attended the session. This is first of its kind initiative in Pakistan.
A total of 39 students from four provinces of the country were selected for the training. Lasbela, Nawa Kill, Jafferabad, Lahore, Karachi, Jacobabad, Muzaffarabad, Mansehra, Peshawer, Balakot, Abbotabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and chakwal were the cities being represented by the students. This orientation session was a part of the year long joint project of Uks and UNFPA which aim to deeply involve the youth to develop media material on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Human Rights.
The orientation session basically covered three sections of media i.e. Print, Radio and Television. Students were briefed about the methods and outcome of content analysis performed by the Uks team. Ms. Tasneem Ahmar Executive Director Uks, briefed the students about how “the youth” are bombarded with images of women as objects of pleasure or pity, powerless and dependent and not as persuasive images which finally leads the youth into negative behaviors. And why there are no solutions being offered on how to improve the images of women from powerless to assertive beings and why there is no impact analysis being carried on how these stereotypical images turn our youth into violent males. Saadia Haq presented for the participants one of her radio programmes focusing Mukhtaran Mai-from Meerwala and how positive contents can help change perceptions. Dr. Rukhshinda Parveen, Founder Director ‘Creative anger by Rakshi’ explained the students about violence, its types and the results of the GBV. She further explained what the role media can play to promote and control the violence.
In the second part of the orientation session participants were divided in 3 groups titled print, radio and television to discuss how they can improve the role of media to avoid gender based violence. Later the group leaders gave their presentation and also interacted with the media. The session ended with the question answer session and certificate distribution among the participants. Under the project the students will go through different workshops, trainings, media content analysis, focus group discussions, and interaction with the media and as a final outcome they will produce the media content on their own.

Uks Research, Resource and Public Centre on Women and Media, in collaboration with the Foundation Open Society Institute (FOSI), have published a new report titled ‘Openness is an Essential Part of Public Governance’. The report is based on the role and use of radio to promote Freedom of Information.
Focusing on radio, this report provides an over all view of the fact how media in Pakistan takes up the issue of access to information. It also throws light on what do broadcasters think and know about the significance of access to information and how it can enhance people’s capacity to participate in the democratic process of the country by enabling them to make informed decisions about matters pertinent to government. The report also provides an overview of the earlier initiatives taken to introduce Freedom of Information Ordinance and their implications.
It may be noted that this publication is basically the final outcome of a combined project of Uks and FOSI. This project emphasized on the issue of Freedom to Access Information as one of the prerequisites for democratic governments for the sake of transparent and smooth governance with reference to the role of Radio in this regard. The project, through its tools of media mapping, monitoring and training, highlighted how all information belonging to the public domain including non-classified information from government, authorities and other national and federal bodies should be easily accessible to allow citizens to actively participate in the democratic process. Role and use of radio for this purpose was the focal point of this project.
A series of three main activities was carried out in the project. In the first stage, mapping and monitoring of the radio sector was conducted which included collection of basic facts, information and details on the radio sector, scope, scale, listener-ship, number of AM/FM radio channels etc. During this process, selected radio channels were monitored for a specific time period. In the second stage, on the basis of mapping of radio sector, three one-day-long workshops were organized in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. In the third and final stage, a comprehensive report was complied on the basis of outcome derived from first and second stages.
Ms. Tasneem Ahmar, Director, Uks while commenting about the report said that the entire process proved extremely beneficial to the radio practitioners and Uks team in learning about the importance of freedom of information and access to information for every individual. She said, it also made the radio practitioners realize that it is their responsibility to communicate ideas and information to the listeners. “I hope that many, if not all radio stations whose representatives were part of this process, will initiate some radio programmes on freedom of information. Such an effort would lead to greater awareness of Freedom of Information, and will broaden radio’s role in promoting and strengthening the process of democracy and good governance in Pakistan” she added.

Uks Research, Resource and Publication Centre on Women and Media today organized an open House to pay tribute to all the brave women who on 12th February 1983, took out a peaceful rally in Lahore to protest against the discriminatory Law of Evidence that General Zia ul Haq's regime attempted to promulgate. These protesters were brutally beaten, tear-gassed and around 50 of them were arrested. Some men were also there to support the women including Habib Jalib, the revolutionary poet who also brutally beaten up. Today, Uks celebrated the courageous women who dared to take a stand then and will continue to do so.
Tasneem Ahmar, Executive Director Uks gave a presentation to the participants of the event on the on-going journey of Uks’s efforts to empower women through media and highlighted the role played by Uks in the promotion of a neutral, balanced and unbiased approach to women and women's issues within, and through the media.
It is pertinent to mention here that Uks is the first NGO in South Asia to compile and disseminate a gender sensitive code of ethics for the print media in Pakistan. As a part of its objective, Uks has been organizing several panel discussions, conferences, seminars and workshops from time to time on different topics. Such as “Panel discussion on Impact of Newspaper Language and Reporting on Women’s Status and Development”, “National conference on mobilizing the media on HIV and AIDS coverage”, “Workshop on Portrayal of Women in the Media” and “Workshop on Monitoring and Sensitising the Print Media on the Portrayal of Women in the Press” etc.
Another significant achievement of Uks is that it is the first civil society organization in Pakistan to own a fully equipped Radio Production House. Using this facility as an effective tool of communication, Uks has launched many series of programs highlighting different issues concerning women’s rights and their problems such as Honour Killing, HIV Aids, water etc.
This event is another effort of Uks to achieve its objectives of women’s rights and their protection. Contributions and publications of Uks in the form of media guides, newsletters, radio programs, brochures etc. were also be exhibited and distributed among the audience at the end of the program.
Those who were present included media managers, friends and colleagues from the donor community, INGOs and NGOs and supporters of Uks.

Best Journalistic Practices by a team of six trainers from Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the University of Oklahoma (OU), Norman, Oklahoma- were held.

Best Journalist Practices Leadership for Women Journalists. This is a two-pronged project through the State Department's Citizen Exchange program with an emphasis on television news production training and preparing female journalists for positions of leadership. Uks--Research, Resource and Publication Centre on Women and Media is the partner from Pakistan.

Since 2008-- under the banner of Uks’s Pakistani Women’s Media Network-- eight women from various media outlets have already received similar trainings at OU, USA and two women journalists went to Katmandu to avail the opportunity of being trained by this group of highly skilled trainers.

Challenging Stereotypes through Art in an exclusive ceremony held at Uks Office in Islamabad. It is an attempt to give the readers a glimpse into the history of Pakistani women, their work, important events, achievements and changing trends of the selected theme.

A product of exhaustive research, the annual desk diary has become the trademark of our organization. It is a handy document, which also serves as a striking collector's item. To give a well-rounded view of the theme for a particular year, essentially related to women development, press clippings, opinions, poetry, illustrations and a detailed chronology of events are given. The diary is widely circulated among media persons, human and women's rights activists, international agencies and government organizations.

Under this collaboration Mainstream media of a selected duration will be analyzed for content on Gender based violence. Youth will then be trained on how to deconstruct this content and develop gender sensitive media content

The Way Forward- an account of how media in Pakistan have been representing women as well as what the women working in the media have to say on issues of social, cultural and environmental impediments, the glass ceiling effect and under representation.

Uks in collaboration of Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars USA performed a media monitoring project where a selection of mainstream media was monitored for a specified duration. The report with content analysis & recommendations was presented in National Media conference in Oct 2009. The follow-up was the said report. What Uks has tried to accomplish in this report is to present both sides of the story. Along with qualitative and quantitative analysis of the selected media on women issues, there is also the feedback from women in the media industry. The report’s main strength is discussions about positive measures, best practices and affirmative actions and recommendations for way forward

Hum Kisie She Kamm Nahe (We Are No Less Than Others) has 12 programs on the themes related to ‘Disability’ Understanding Disability: A Media Guide’. It is a reflection of Uks’s commitment to sensitize media and the public on the rights of the disabled and the responsibilities of society towards them. The report, while facilitating the media on how to report more sensitively on disability provides practical guidelines by using examples from Uks radio programmes on Disability. The radio programmes and the Guide are an effort towards creating awareness among media and public on the need to understand and accept the abilities, not disabilities of the disabled persons.

Uks is the partner for the Fourth Global Media Monitoring Project in 2009 and 2010 (GMMP 2009/2010) being undertaken by The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). This is the day when 125 countries around the world were (some may still be) busy monitoring– from morning till night- their respective media under the banner of GMMP, a longitudinal, gender-focused media monitoring research and advocacy project running since 1995 that is implemented collaboratively with women’s rights organizations, grassroots groups, media associations, university students and researchers across the world. Uks Research Centre being the implementing partner conducted this media monitoring at its office with a team of 20 monitors, including students from the Gender Studies Department, Quaid-e-Azam University. A total number of 4 national newspapers, 3 radio channels and 3 television channels were monitored for their news content. The analyzed data in the form of coded sheets has been shared with GMMP.

Pakistani Women’s Media Network was initiated by Uks in 2008. It is an informal, non-hierarchical group of women media persons and others working in or for media. It is an autonomous body, committed to raising voices and concerns against gender-based violence, injustices and biases in the media and society. The website www.uks-pwmn.com launched in a ceremony held in Islamabad serves as a platform for media persons, mass communication/ journalism students to share experiences & opportunities.

The issue related to women and politics were brought forward, the barriers that exclude women from participating in politics were also highlighted. The aim of this Radio Series was Women’s Empowerment through politics. Engendering Politics through Media is a guide explaining how community radio can empower & gives voices to voiceless. The guide is specifically developed to provide journalists particularly working within the radio industry an understanding on how gender surfaces within the realm of politics and news. It can be used for capacity builing of managers.