KARACHI: In a joint statement issued by the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) and Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), the media organisations have urged Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi to implement the media payment formula of advertising dues as implemented by the federal government as well as provincial governments.

Under this mechanism, the federal and provincial governments pay their verified advertising bills directly to the relevant media and the agency commission/trade discount is paid directly to the advertising agencies based on an 85/15 formula.

This entails 85pc being paid to media and 15pc to advertising agencies for services rendered.

“The media bodies are of the considered view that this system ensures timely and transparent disbursement of media and agency dues,” they said in a statement.

The representative bodies of media have stated that if the above-agreed formula was withdrawn by the Punjab government, the media would be deprived of the timely payments of the advertisements published/aired by the media.

The APNS, PBA and CPNE have also requested the provincial government to take the media stakeholders on board before finalising its advertising policy.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2022