ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to clear all dues of media houses to help improve the financial standing of newspapers and TV channels, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Monday.

He said the decision was taken at a meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan and directives had been issued to the departments concerned to take steps for immediate implantation of the decision.

Mr Chaudhry said the meeting had noted with concern that a number of media workers were sacked over the past few weeks. The minister said the previous governments had used media advertisements as a political tool and that policy had affected business and caused chaos in the industry.

“The government has decided to chalk out a transparent advertisement policy to award advertising contracts purely on merit,” Fawad Chaudhry said. “The PTI-led government will bring about rationality and balance in the industry through its decisions.”

He claimed that the present government had abolished censorship in state-run media. “We are taking measures to limit and eventually end government control over media advertisements,” the minister added.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (Afzal Butt group) welcomed the decision, claiming that it would help ensure job security and timely payment of salaries to media workers.

In a statement, Afzal Butt, president of his own group, said the government’s decisions to abolish duty on import of newsprint and to release the pending amounts would help media organisations tide over the current financial crisis.

He appealed to the owners of media houses to stop sacking of workers.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018