The media, particularly the print media is stressed as any other industry in a slow economic environment and with the pandemic running havoc. In such a scenario it is seen that print media has faced economic hardship to sustain and survive. The leading papers have also cut on employees and salaries, not to mention the dilemma of small newspapers.

In such a scenario, when additional support in some form is required, Government has also come hard on the industry by reducing advertisements and no special support system is provided even though the government is very much in the know of the situation the sector is facing.

The recent decision by the Media fraternity of Manipur not to publish any newspaper on 17th December and to avoid any political discussion in electronic media on the 16th December as a mark of protest until Manipur Government releases pending Advertisement Bills shows the seriousness and grave situation each media houses is facing. The media fraternity even threatened to boycott all Government and political reporting in the upcoming days.

Now that the state election is upcoming, the Government of the day woke up to the genuine demand of the media houses as crores of advertisement bills are due by the Manipur Government to the paper houses and Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had intervened to resolve the same, even though it is too late a call.

Chief Minister Singh had on various other occasions had promised that the advertisements bills would be cleared but it seems his many departments do not hesitate to issue Government advertisements but when it comes to payments they look the other way.

It is a matter of introspection, how do these departments that release advertisements for their respective projects and tenders etc. manages to show the Utilisation Certificate (UC) and face their respective audits.

Policymakers, political think tanks, and government should do an introspection to understand the mechanism and value of traditional media platforms rather than face the demon of social media. It is always better to support the time-tested, responsible media than the emergence of chaotic media outlets. Equally true for media units is to accept the changing scenario and learn to change to become sustainable become self-reliant through innovation, good quality reporting and stop aligning with a particular political party or Government but stay aligned with your reader, which is the ‘Common Man’.

Your readers are your asset and start asking the reader to pay for the news rather than depend on Government advertisements.

The Government will do an injustice to itself and would be hitting the axe in their own legs if it continues with the media apathy because any intelligent Government would understand that they need the media more to disseminate their stories than the media needing the Government.

Sonner the good reasoning prevails in the mind and thoughts of the stakeholders of the Government, particularly the political parties better it would be to run a well-oiled Government.

There are no use of crocodile tears and politician should know that at least they can not fool the media the way they have been failing and fooling the common man. It is now too little and too late, that is why we see the emergence of independent media which can not be stopped, the Government of the day may do whatever…