PBA agrees to 70 percent cut in rates of government adverts: minister

JournalismPakistan.com
January 11, 2019

ISLAMABAD – Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry said Friday the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) had agreed to a 70% cut in rates of government adverts.

The minister announced this on Twitter, saying the government would save billions of rupees as a result of this.

Ù…ÛŒÚˆÛŒØ§ Ù…Ø§Ù„Ú©Ø§Ù† Ø§ÙˆØ± ØÚ©ÙˆÙ…Øª Ú©Û’ Ø¯Ø±Ù…ÛŒØ§Ù† Ø§Ø´ØªÛØ§Ø±Ø§Øª Ú©Û’ Ø±ÛŒÙ¹ Ù¾Ø± Ù…Ø¹Ø§Ú¾Ø¯Û Ø·Û’ Ù¾Ø§ Ú¯ÛŒØ§ ÛÛ’ØŒ Ø§Ø³ Ù…Ø¹Ø§Ú¾Ø¯Û’ Ú©Û’ Ù†ØªÛŒØ¬Û’ Ù…ÛŒÚº PBA Ù†Û’ ØÚ©ÙˆÙ…ØªÛŒ Ø§Ø´ØªÛØ§Ø±Ø§Øª Ú©Û’ Ø±ÛŒÙ¹Ø³ Ù…ÛŒÚº 70% Ú©Ù…ÛŒ Ù¾Ø± Ø¢Ù…Ø§Ø¯Ú¯ÛŒ Ø¸Ø§ÛØ± Ú©ÛŒ ÛÛ’ Ø§Ø³ Ú©Û’ Ù†ØªÛŒØ¬Û’ Ù…ÛŒÚº ØÚ©ÙˆÙ…Øª Ú©Ùˆ Ø§Ø±Ø¨ÙˆÚº Ø±ÙˆÙ¾Û’ Ú©ÛŒ Ø¨Ú†Øª ÛÙˆ Ú¯ÛŒÛ”
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 11, 2019

The PBA and the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) have had a hard time dealing with the new PTI government.

There have been instances where the minister spoke out against the media houses, their business models, and their continual job and pay cuts.

For example, in December the minister claimed the government had paid around half of the money it owed to the media houses, but none of it was used to pay salaries of workers.

It upset both the media bodies which went on record to clarify and said such statements by the minister could create conflict within the media industry. “Previously also the minister has made disparaging public remarks against the news media industry which is highly regrettable,” the APNS and PBA had said back then.