FAISALABAD, Feb 1: A meeting of the executive committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society has expressed grave concern over the deteriorating financial condition of the newspaper industry because of economic slowdown which has resulted in a drastic fall in the advertising revenue of newspapers.

The financial crunch has been exacerbated by the non-payment of bills of member publications by the federal as well as provincial governments for about four years, says a press release.

The executive committee urged the federal government to bail out the industry by expediting the long outstanding payments and withdrawing the centralised media policy.

The committee expressed concern over the overwhelmingly centralised advertisement policy of the federal government under its recent decision to revive the centralised media policy of 1964, a by-product of the black law, Press and Publications Ordinance (PPO) 1963, enacted by the dictatorial regime of Ayub Khan.

The members reiterated their demand for withdrawal of the policy as it would be a disaster for smaller and medium sized newspapers.

Secretary general Masood Hamid informed the committee that the Sindh government had not paid Rs400 million dues of member publications up to December 2012 despite giving several assurances.

The APNS members from Faisalabad informed the committee that the PID was depriving their publications of their due share in advertisements.