The Jammu & Kashmir Government on Friday refused to roll back the advertisement policy for the newspapers but assured to make amendments in it to accommodate the concerns highlighted by the stakeholders. The newspaper owners allege that the new advertisement policy implemented in March this year during the Governor’s Rule is detrimental to the newspaper industry. The State Information department has delayed payments to the newspapers for several months. The Opposition members described the policy as a tool to suppress newspapers and the freedom of press. Even the ruling BJP legislator and State president of the party Sat Sharma pleaded for rollback of the policy and asked the Government to take a fair view of the situation.
Education Minister Naeem Akhtar while replying to a question of National Conference legislator Davinder Rana said that the stakeholders of the newspaper industry have approached the Government with representations seeking withdrawal of certain clauses of the news advertisement policy, 2016. “The representations are being looked into and wherever corrective measures are required, they will be taken,” Akhtar said.
Akhtar said the draft advertisement policy was approved by the State Administrative Council (SAC) after deliberations on Mach 4, 2016. “There has been a rapid increase in the number of newspaper publications in the State and it was felt appropriate to revise the benchmarks for considering the newspapers for issuance of advertisements,” Akhtar said adding the old advertisement policy was issued in the year 1996.
The Opposition legislators Mubarak Gul and Ali Mohammad Sagar accused the Government of muzzling the freedom of Press through the new advertisement policy. “There is a political agenda behind the implementation of this policy. It is a ploy to curb the freedom of Press,” Gul said.
Akhtar said there was no involvement of the present State Government in the implementation of the new advertisement policy. He sought to dispel the notion that the advertisement policy was detrimental to the growth of fourth estate. “The policy has been devised to further strengthen the growth of a healthy journalism regime in the State,” he said adding due care has been taken to safeguard the interests of the small and medium newspapers particularly of vernacular medium.
He said J&K is amongst the rare States in the country where the advertisement rates are uniform for every newspaper irrespective of the circulation criteria.