Failure to clear outstanding advertisement bills Media houses resolve to boycott Govt, BJP
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 23 2022: Media houses in Manipur have resolved to boycott all news related to the State Government and BJP Manipur Pradesh following their failure to clear the outstanding advertisement bills.

The boycott will come into effect from April 24 .

The resolution was taken during a joint meeting of publishers, Editors, representatives of All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU) and Manipur Hills Journalists Union (MHJU) held at Manipur Press Club today.

Notably, the media houses had on April 15 served an ultimatum to the Government and BJP, Manipur Pradesh to clear the due by today (April 23) .

The meeting decided to go ahead with the boycott as the State Government and BJP, State unit didn't give any response, said a joint statement of AMWJU, EGM and MHJU and added that media houses in Manipur have been reeling under financial strain due to the Covid pandemic and the rising cost of news production.

In case of Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), the meeting resolved to give some time to the party to clear their pending bill as its president has given some assurances.

The boycott, according to the resolution of the joint meeting, will cover all news related to the Manipur Government, ruling parties-BJP and NPF, and Government advertisements including those of its authorities, corporations like the PDA, LDA etc.

The boycott, however, will not include the offices of the Governor, the Speaker, COVID-19 and pandemic related news including medical emergen- cies.

Crime related stories of law and order will also be exempted from the boycott, as per the resolution.

The boycott will come into effect from April 24, 2022 and continue till the pending bills are paid or some sort of understanding is reached with the parties concerned.

Bills amounting to crores of rupees are still pending with the Government while the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress are yet to clear their respective dues running into lakhs for publishing advertisements in connection with the 12th Assembly election, it added.

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