Sindh government assured the media houses that the authorities will take measures to clear their dues against government departments within a month as the media houses are facing difficulties in paying salaries to their workers owing to non-payment of these dues against advertisements published for government departments.
Notably, PPP had historically always duly protected the rights of journalists and safeguarded the institution of free press in the country. However, matter of fact remains that provincial government has not been able to meet the running expenses of media houses.
A few months ago during a press conference in Karachi, Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani condemned what he described as “unannounced restrictions on the media” and attributed the financial crisis being faced by the media to the “failed” policies of the federal government.
Sources revealed, the auditors had reportedly verified the media houses’ bills and submitted their report to the government. However, despite the verification and inspection of the bills by different departments of the Sindh government and the independent auditors, the summary was being thrown from one department to another and the dues were still outstanding.
Last month in February, senate standing committee directed the information ministry to pay media houses’ outstanding dues within but government failed to pay.
The Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) raised the issue of the non-payment of ad dues to the media houses, following which the senator assured them of working on resumption of ad payments to media houses.
He further advised the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication to release a new ad campaign for the country’s broadcasting companies.
In response, PBA President Shakeel Masud Hussain said if the government paid its dues to media houses, the broadcasting companies were ready to disburse their workers’ salaries.
The PBA also suggested that the government and media houses set up a joint account in order to make it easier for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration to pay what it owes to media houses, which, in turn, pay their employees.
The unrest amongst the media workers is forcing them to go on leave or compelled the media houses to cut their staff strength ultimately damaging their own performance.
Government had been benefiting from the facility of newspaper advertisements, but it had failed to pay outstanding dues of the newspapers for the last several years.