Governor urges judicious release of ads to newspapers | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Governor urges judicious release of ads to newspapers

PESHAWAR- The NWFP Governor Lt Gen retd Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah issued instructions for judicious distribution of government advertisements to newspapers. Presiding over a meeting of the media scrutiny committee comprising senior journalists, he said the government would support the genuine regional papers to grow by allocating them a sizeable share in official advertisements.

He said dummy papers would not be encouraged and advertisements would be given on the basis of true circulation figures, regularity of publication, quality of the daily and working conditions of its employees. It was the first meeting of the committee, which was formed over three months ago the national and regional news to review the categorization of papers in light of the provincial government’s media and advertisement policy.

The governor convened the meeting on a day’s notice when the committee members and local journalists complained to him that the committee hasn’t met due to official apathy beside the committee members Faizur Rahman Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), Shamim Shahid (The Nation) and Rahimullah Yusufzai (The News), who attended the meeting, Mohammad Riaz of Nawa-e-Waqt and Shaukat Ali Yousafzai of Al-Akhbar also took part in the deliberations. The governor during the meeting agreed to a suggestion to undertake a survey of the circulation of local papers through the military monitoring teams to get a true picture of the situation.

He also endorsed a proposal that newspapers seeking government advertisements should be provide better working conditions to its employees, especially working journalists, and improve the quaky of their publications.

The committee members also raised the issue of lack of service structure and promotion opportunities for officers of the provincial information department and urged the governor to take steps to remove their grievances and better utilize their services and skills

Source: The News
Date:5/29/2001