Ads to be given on basis of newspapers’ circulation, publication, says Firdous Ashiq Awan

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting Wednesday recommended that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) should revisit its law and suggest amendments needed in order to make a mechanism that licences of private media were linked with timely payment of salaries and proper service agreements and service structures.

The committee recommended to the government to condition payment of upcoming government campaigns to private media houses with payment of all pending payment to staff. The committee decided to call and hear the PBA, SECP with data as to how many journalists were registered with them and what percentage of staff had pending payments of salaries.

The committee, which met here under its Chairman Faisal Javed, took up the matter of non-payment of salaries to working journalists by many private media houses for the last many months. The matter was referred to the committee from the Senate for consideration and report to the House.

Special Assistant to PM on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan told the committee that a total of Rs870 million had already been paid to media houses in pending payments and the remaining amount of Rs990 million was pending. The committee directed that this payment should be linked to payment of pending salaries of journalists.

Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan told the Standing Committee that the government would ensure the distribution of advertisements on the basis of the actual publication and circulation figures of a newspaper. It was said that previously 4, 200 newspapers were registered on the basis of their circulation, but now their number has dropped to 1,680.

Awan also declared that 2020 will be the year of support and assistance to the country’s journalist and media workers and the government would table a Journalist Protection Bill to ensure that.

Faisal Javed Khan said the committee strongly criticised that the committee has no right to summon the owner of a private company and order him to pay salaries to his employees.

The committee recommended that since child abuse was a recurring phenomenon in society at present and it needed immediate and coordinated attention, public service messages with continuity should be prepared and run on the state-run TV as well as private channels. The committee chairman called for public awareness campaign. The Zainab Alert Bill after having been passed by the National Assembly was in the Senate committee at present and effective campaign could be made on highlighting the issue to spread awareness as well as create deterrence.

Those in attendance included Senators Syed Sabir Shah, Rukhsana Zuberi, Pervaiz Rasheed, Sajjad Turi, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Chairman Pemra, Chairman and MD of state-run TV, and representatives of journalists.

The committee discussed in detail the matter of revamping of the state-run TV. The matters of importance of public service messages, maintenance of archives and launching digital media platforms at a wide scale were also discussed.