Development of media, govt’s top priority: Secy Info
ISLAMABAD, May 4 (APP):Federal Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Sohail Ali Khan on Thursday said that the development of media was the foremost priority of the government which had been taking tangible actions for resolving its issues.
The ministry was cognizant of the issues faced by the media industry, he said during a meeting with a delegation of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) led by its founding President Khushnood Ali Khan.
The delegation included CPNE Convener Mumtaz Hussain Bhatti (Editor Roznama Din), Syed Tabasum Shah (Editor Roznama Sada-i-Such), Aqeel Tareen (Editor Roznama Ghazanvi), Zahid Farooq Malik (Roznama Metro Watch), Hassan Waqar (Editor Roznama Jahan) and others.
The delegation felicitated Sohail Ali Khan on assuming the charge of the Secretary Information and Broadcasting.
During the meeting, CPNE Convener Mumtaz Hussain Bhatti informed the secretary about the challenges faced by the media industry due to inflation.
He urged the government to increase the volume and rates of advertisements.
The delegation pointed out that the centralized media policy introduced by the Imran led government had severely impacted the media industry. The new policy resulted into a reduction in the publicity budgets of the government departments.
The delegation also apprised the information secretary that OGDCL and some other institutions directly released the advertisements instead of using the channel of the Press Information Department.
Furthermore, the representatives of CPNE urged the secretary to ensure distribution of the advertisements judiciously.
The secretary information assured the delegation that the ministry would continue to act as bridge between government and the media industry under the leadership of the Federal Minister of Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb.
“Every possible effort will be made to increase the volume and rates of advertisements to steer the media industry out of crisis,” he resolved.
A committee has also been formed to solve the problems faced by the print media. The body was headed by Principal Information Officer Mubashir Hassan and comprised of Mumtaz Hussain Bhatti and Syed Tabasim Abbas Shah and others.
Source: APP
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