KARACHI: While expressing grave concern over devastating effects of federal and provincial governments’ media policies on member publications of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, especially the smaller and regional publications, the APNS has warned the authorities that if the policies are not reviewed in consultation with the stakeholders, many publications will have to close down their operations, resulting in large-scale unemployment of journalists and media workers.
The APNS executive committee, at a meeting chaired by its president Hameed Haroon, considered the state of print media in the country and noted that the press information department (PID) and Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information departments under the new policy had been empowered to select the media for government advertising, thus depriving the clients of their rights to choose the respective media for ads. Subsequently, the sponsoring departments had curtailed advertising, believing their advertising was being given to mostly unknown newspapers.