Islamabad: (Parliament Times) While expressing its dismay over incumbent government’s apathy towards the media, the All Kashmir News Papers Society (AKNS) on Tuesday rejected the budget allocated for Department of Information.
“The media which is believed to be the 4th pillar of the State has been totally ignored in the budget despite the government’s assurance of budget increase”, the AKNS statement said adding that it was a manifestation of government’s ill intentions about the media. They said that the Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan had promised that the government would allocate rupees 10-Crore normal budget for the Information Department, allocate 1% of development budget for media and immediate clearance of unpaid bills to the media organizations but no steps were taken in this direction.
Regarding the payment of outstanding advertisement dues to print-media the AKNS statement said that the despite repeated assurances not a single penny was paid so far. “Some elements in the bureaucracy are hell bent on to sow the seeds of confrontation between government and media thereby strangulating the print media industry in the State”, the statement said adding that this kind of ill treatment meted out to the state media won’t be tolerated.
“This kind of hostile attitude and anti-media policies, if continued, will not only lead to closure of newspaper industry in the State but will also render hundreds of media workers jobless”, the statement further added. Meanwhile, the AKNS has summoned an emergency meeting of its members to evolve a future strategy in this regard. In order to deal the situation the AKNS will mull over different options that including the closure of newspapers, taking to streets and staging sit-in outside the Prime Minister House as a mark of protest.