AGL 40.00 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
AIRLINK 129.06 Decreased By ▼ -0.47 (-0.36%)
BOP 6.75 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.05%)
CNERGY 4.49 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-3.02%)
DCL 8.55 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-4.36%)
DFML 40.82 Decreased By ▼ -0.87 (-2.09%)
DGKC 80.96 Decreased By ▼ -2.81 (-3.35%)
FCCL 32.77 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FFBL 74.43 Decreased By ▼ -1.04 (-1.38%)
FFL 11.74 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (2.35%)
HUBC 109.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.97 (-0.88%)
HUMNL 13.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.81 (-5.56%)
KEL 5.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.48%)
KOSM 7.72 Decreased By ▼ -0.68 (-8.1%)
MLCF 38.60 Decreased By ▼ -1.19 (-2.99%)
NBP 63.51 Increased By ▲ 3.22 (5.34%)
OGDC 194.69 Decreased By ▼ -4.97 (-2.49%)
PAEL 25.71 Decreased By ▼ -0.94 (-3.53%)
PIBTL 7.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-3.52%)
PPL 155.45 Decreased By ▼ -2.47 (-1.56%)
PRL 25.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.94 (-3.52%)
PTC 17.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.96 (-5.2%)
SEARL 78.65 Decreased By ▼ -3.79 (-4.6%)
TELE 7.86 Decreased By ▼ -0.45 (-5.42%)
TOMCL 33.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.78 (-2.26%)
TPLP 8.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.66 (-7.28%)
TREET 16.27 Decreased By ▼ -1.20 (-6.87%)
TRG 58.22 Decreased By ▼ -3.10 (-5.06%)
UNITY 27.49 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.22%)
WTL 1.39 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.72%)
BR100 10,445 Increased By 38.5 (0.37%)
BR30 31,189 Decreased By -523.9 (-1.65%)
KSE100 97,798 Increased By 469.8 (0.48%)
KSE30 30,481 Increased By 288.3 (0.95%)

The APNS strongly flays the imposition of centralization of advertisements policy by the Federal Government and terms it a bureaucratic attempt to curb freedom of press.

Hameed Haroon, President and Sarmad Ali, Secretary General, APNS on behalf of the APNS Executive Committee, have stated that "The bureaucrats in the Information Ministry for the last few years, have perpetually initiated schemes to control and subjugate the media. Such schemes were embodied in the Media Regulatory Authority, Media Courts, Media Policy etc. and had been completely rejected by the stakeholders in the media.

"Now, the Prime Minister Secretariat has issued a centralization policy directing all advertisements of Federal Government to be issued through PID and the sponsoring organizations have been barred to select their media as per their requirements.

"The APNS reiterates that this policy would result in centralization of the decision making process of all ministries, departments and autonomous bodies in the hands of a few individuals and will wreck havoc on the independent functioning of these institutions. The policy will negate the independence of the departments in their choice of communication through their selected media and in fact result in taking over the entire functioning of all state institutions.

"The policy is heavily based on the scheme of centralization of advertisements enacted by the dictatorial regime of Gen. Ayub Khan in July 1966. With each change of government the information bureaucracy has attempted to implement this outdated and archaic policy. The APNS has noted that in past, such efforts to control the media, were strongly rejected by the media organizations because it would be used as a tool of twisting media arms and curb its independence.

"The APNS Office Bearers requested the Prime Minister to review and withdraw the order issued by the Prime Minister Secretariat in the interest of an independent and objective media in the country."-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

Comments

Comments are closed.