New media advertising policy on the anvil: Firdous

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Monday the government would soon launch a new media advertising policy to make it compatible with the modern requirements.

Speaking at a meeting of Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) here, she said all the stakeholders would be consulted for preparation of the new policy.

She said the government was taking measures to resolve issues of the media houses so that the media workers were not affected and they were paid salaries timely.

The Special Assistant said changes would be introduced in the role of the advertising agencies.

Firdous Ashiq Awan said the government would make efforts to create a comfort zone for the media industry in order to ensure a conducive environment for media workers.

She said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would come up to the expectations of the media community. Media workers were close to the heart of the prime minister and during the present media situation he had sympathies with them.

The SAPM said that the government was desirous of settlement of all issues related to media through consultation and dialogue.

She said that she had advised Principal Information Officer Tahir Khushnood to hold consultations with media organizations and media workers organizations and prepare strategy for resolution of their problems.

In this age of information, Firdous Ashiq Awan said social media was also a major source of information and a social media policy would also be formed after consultation with the stakeholders.

She said that in the past anti-PTI campaign was launched on the media by the previous government from public sector funds and ironically payment of that media campaign would have to be done by the present government.

She said that fake news was a big challenge and media help was required to overcome this problem.