KARACHI: The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to include payment of media industry’s dues in his relief package scheduled to be announced on Tuesday (today).

APNS president Hameed Haroon and secretary general Sarmad Ali appealed to the prime minister to instruct the federal and provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to release the advertising dues of the media, amounting to approximately Rs6 billion, on a priority basis. This will enable the crisis-ridden media industry to effectively play its role in creating awareness about Covid-19 and combating fake news, an APNS statement said on Monday.

The APNS office-bearers said that newspapers were an authentic source of information and in these trying times when things were spinning out of control, they were an essential tool to combat fake news and rumour-mongering.

They requested the prime minister to announce this as part of the Covid-19 relief package that he intended to announce on Tuesday. The newspaper industry was going through an acute financial crisis due to a cut in government advertising and delay in payments of advertising dues, the APNS said. The Covid-19 was likely to further aggravate this crisis, it added.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2020