KARACHI: In response to the statement of Maryam Nawaz wherein she admits to denying some media houses advertising, as well as the statement of the Minister of Information in which he has released a partial media spend to reporters recently, PBA issued a statement in Karachi on Wednesday saying that government advertising should never be used to influence editorial content or to control free speech.

Governments should not try and create divisions within media or use advertising as a tool to exercise control over media.

We ask the government to make public all media spends of the last 20 years including the present government’s spend.

PBA strongly condemns all forms of coercion by any govt past or present who has used govt advertisements as a tool to influence editorial policy.

The present govt also faces accusations of adopting the same strategy whereas as per its’ manifesto, it should ensure that taxpayers’ money for advertisement in public interest is well spent and is given on merit.

The present government has also centralised advertising decisions, taking this right away from individual govt organizations, depts and ministries in order to exercise control on media.

The present government’s track record on media relations has also been under a lot of criticism by media watch dogs and journalists’ bodies.

When governments try to control freedom of expression, democracy and the people of Pakistan suffer the most.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021