The Fourth Estate in Arunachal has bigger challenges in every aspect when compared to their counterparts elsewhere. Still decades away from reaching a stage of maturity, sporadic incidences of threats and assaults also makes the little progress futile.

However, in all this what has hurt the growth of the media here is the non-payment of advertisement bills by the various departments under the state government for long period of time. It is worth mentioning that after years of appeals, the Pema Khandu government had cleared the bills in 2017 of the last four years i.e, up to 2016.

 It a tilted market, when the government fails to honour its dues, not for a year but for successive 4 years in a row, there is a serious problem. It’s not the outstanding dues that are significant, it is the failure to keep track of departmental functioning that is worrisome. Right hand doesn’t know what left hand is up to. In the process, the government is bleeding the publishers. ‎ 

 

In this scenario, the State Cabinet approving the much awaited Arunachal Pradesh Advertisement Policy 2018 is a huge relief for the media fraternity. With this decision, a centralised funding policy will be in place for enabling the Government to make payment of Government advertisement bills to media houses on timely basis. 

The incharges for its implementation will benefit from looking at the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) for ideas on streamlining the advertisement process including a glitch free payment module.

 In a largely government fuelled economy cutting across sectors, media industry in the frontier state is no exception. On an average, 70 percent of the revenue is generated through government departments and another 5-10 percent through autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies. Give or take it’s just about 20-25 percent that comes from central agencies and private market players. Therefore, without an exception, it's the failure of successive governments to put in place a system that has failed the media’s growth story.

 

 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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