Director Information justifies advertisement cut to small newspapers
Jammu Tawi, March 27: Contrary to the mess and chaos prevalent in the Information Department and its resolve to strangulate the genuine newspapers, its Director claimed otherwise. While in an earlier statement, the department attributed the turmoil in Kashmir valley for the decline in advertisement flow, this time Director Information claimed Model Code of Conduct that has been imposed recently after the announcement of by-polls to two Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir.
The Director Information, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary claimed that despite drop in advertisement flow, the department is trying to maintain a ‘judicious balance' in release of advertisements to the empanelled newspapers and periodicals as per the guidelines laid down in Advertisement Policy-2016 to ensure adequate financial support to these publications.
Amusingly, the Director Information further claimed that during the past two years, the department has taken various measures to ‘ameliorate the financial health of all the categories of newspapers' in the state by providing ‘adequate' advertisement support. “Besides announcing 50% hike in advertisement rates this year, the Government has substantially hiked the advertisement budget from Rs 22.20 crore in the financial year 2015-16 to Rs 28 crore for the current fiscal,” he said and added that this excludes the advertisements of Public Sector Undertakings and Autonomous Bodies issued under Non-Budget head which amount to around additional Rs 5 crore per annum.
He further claimed that his department is continuously working towards ‘streamlining the advertisement distribution' process and a comprehensive and ‘transparent mechanism' is being put in place by categorizing the empanelled newspapers/periodicals in various categories, in tune with the guidelines laid down in the Advertisement Policy-2016. “The new mechanism would not only do away with the present discretional system of advertisement distribution, but also ensure assured and regular flow of advertisements to all the empanelled newspapers and periodicals, whether big or small,” he said and added that the new system would especially help the small newspapers who would henceforth get regular advertisements as per their appropriate category.
