Journalists, media organizations optimistic after CM’s fair policy pledge regarding local media

Immediately after taking over the reins of government in Jammu and Kashmir, the newly elected Chief Minister Omar Abdullah promised that his government will ensure that no injustice is done to the mediapersons or organisations.  

This avowal about the local media has brought hope among the local journalists and media organizations. They are optimistic about “good days” ahead for them, both in terms of freeness as well as equitable distribution of government advertisements.

Local institutions and journalists say that the Chief Minister's timely statement has boosted self-respect and it seems that the media will be free once again and the scribes will openly perform their professional duties in a proper manner. However, steps should be taken immediately to implement the views by the Chief Minister.

It should be noted that soon after taking the oath of office of the Chief Minister, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah pointed towards the “corruption” as regards local media for the past several years.

The chief minister said that "I would like to assure the media colleagues that there will be no interference on part of my government in the working of the media. There will be no injustice, you will not be punished for writing anything against me. Yes I know it will be difficult for me to read, I may not even like to read or watch but we will not be able to strengthen democracy if we don't let the media do its job.”

He said, "I know that the press colleagues and institutions here have faced difficulties on the issue of accreditation card and registration, we will remove these difficulties."

In this brief speech, the newly elected Chief Minister addressed the local media, giving hope and encouragement at the same time.  He announced that there will be fair policy and the media organizations and journalists here have expressed happiness over the statement and thanked the Chief Minister for being sensitive towards the problems facing them.

The local media felt isolated for many years and now that there is optimism that their voices will be heard and problems resolved. It is noteworthy that hundreds of people are associated with the local print media and for this, government advertisements remain an important source for these institutions to provide salaries to journalists and other staff.

The advertising policy which was prevalent in the past was changed over the years and only a few newspapers were given advertisements for crores of rupees which neither have wide access to the public nor generate employment opportunities.  

If the number of employees in these institutions is calculated, then such newspapers won’t be able to live up to the established policy. The root of this whole problem is the Department of Information. There are allegations of mismanagement of advertisement distribution to benefit few and get returns which qualify nothing other than illegal gratification.

The distribution of advertisements to newspapers is the responsibility of the Assistant Director of Advertisement, but the Joint Director, who is not in charge, is improperly issuing these distributions, allegedly due to corruption.

It is to be noted that the post of Assistant Director (Advertising) is reserved in the advertisement distribution department who is responsible for distributing advertisements to local newspapers and other media organizations. However there have been allegations of corruption and among a few officials and officers which need to be probed. Also some officers monopolized the working to benefit a few media organizations for the reasons best known to them and that too needs to be inquired into and action taken for the larger good of the journalist fraternity.  

Now that the Chief Minister has announced his fair media policy after the new government came into power, first of all, the corrupt officers who have monopolized the advertising sector in the information department for many years should be made accountable and local media should be allowed to flourish for larger public good.