LAHORE - Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Saturday said the government would soon introduce a new digital policy for equipping the media with modern technology and facilities.
Talking to a delegation of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ) during his visit to PTV Centre Lahore, he said a state-of-the-art media university would be established by merging the academies of Pakistan Television (PTV), Radio Pakistan and Information Ministry.
He said it was the government’s responsibility to side with the poor and “we are standing with you people.” There was a great human resource in the field of journalism, who, however, lacked skills and the government would work to equip them with skills and expertise in respective fields at the media university, he added. Work was under way for issuance of health cards to working journalists to ensure provision of free of charge medical facilities of up to Rs 550,000 to each of them, he added.
The minister said there was a positive development regarding DTH lincences. He said the government wanted to abolish its monopoly on media advertisements. “Like the past governments, we cannot spend billions of rupees on media advertisements,” he said, adding that the print media, however, would not be left to die on that count.
He said the names of three judges had been proposed for Wage Board Award. Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority would be established so that all modes of media would have solution to their problems at one place. The delegation consisted of PFUJ President Rana Azeem, Salman Ghani, Habib Akram, Imran Khan, Shehzad Butt, Aamir Sohail and others.