Plight of media houses in resource-starved Manipur
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: December 18, 2021 -

THE government's inability to clear advertisement dues pending for over three years to all the-media establishments corroborates the state's poor financial position and its chronic dependence on periodical sops from the Union government.

The limited sources of revenue collection had been one of the reasons for the state to continuously depend on the centre's benevolence for undertaking any major infrastructure development project.

However, it's unthinkable that the government had been persistently ignoring the necessity for timely clearance of advertisement bills running into crores of rupees to the media houses which have been the main platform to announce achievements and make the public aware about various schemes and programmes launched to mitigate suffering of the people to some extent.

While role of media in disseminating information on various issues is being eulogised from all sections of the society, there is no doubt that every sane person realised its importance in updating the masses on the daily happenings across the world during these pandemic times, when almost all socio-political and economic activities, with exception of the media and healthcare sectors, were severely affected.

Ironically, non-clearance of the advertisement dues piled up during the pandemic period, thereby pushing print and electronic media to the brink of bankruptcy that some even had to delay payment or deduct salary of the employees.

Regardless of the salary cuts the media persons performed their duties and consequently earned the right to be considered as one of the frontline workers, in-spite of being exposed to the virus as the new concept of work-from-home was not feasible for all the journalist community.

With salary not commensurate with the huge responsibility entrusted upon them as reformers and propagators of both positive and negative facets of the society and governance, the journalists did not have the luxury to decide on quitting the job fearing the virus other than executing their daily assignment.

Compared to the frontline workers, who are guaranteed paid leave, and provided food and lodging facilities to remain in isolation on completion of duty roster, the journalists faced a tough situation as the nature of their job entailed working at the ground level to disseminate precise information.

Therefore, with great reluctance a meeting of editors, members of Editors' Guild Manipur (EGM) and Manipur Hill Journalists' Union (MHJU) decided to cease work for a day to protest the non-clearance of government advertisement bills to various media houses in the state.

As resolved in the meeting, there would be no coverage of programmes of ministers followed by government and ruling parties in case the demand for clearance of the pending advertisement bills evokes no positive response from the government side.

However, with the assembly elections round the corner, it's not surprising that the government has given assurance to address grievances of the media houses for it considers the media as not only the fourth pillar of democracy but also a vital platform to highlight its achievements and lay down newer policies enticing enough to bring it back to power.

Moreover, the cherished goal for free and fair election wouldn't be possible without the media providing the platform where voters could engage in public debate and have adequate information about parties, policies, candidates and the election process itself in order to make informed choices.