Andhra Pradesh - Nellore   

Welfare fund for journalists mooted

NELLORE: The State government is contemplating to set aside a certain percentage of advertisement commission, that is usually given to advertisement agencies or franchisees for placing advertisements, to launch welfare programmes exclusively for the betterment of journalistic community, according to Information and Public Relations Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy.

“As of now, the newspaper or any media management gets 85 per cent of the advertisement tariff while the rest goes to an advertisement agency in most of the cases. But the government now wants to place advertisements directly to the respective managements via the I&PR Department and ask the managements to take 90 per cent of the tariff and give back to the government the rest (10 per cent),” the Minister said after inaugurating the Press Club building at Mehboob Khan park near the District Collectorate here on Monday.

Mr. Reddy said that the government had already deposited Rs. 50 lakh to use the interest on the principal for medical expenses of sick journalists. “However, the amount is too small as the number of applications seeking financial assistance has been very high.”

The Minister said that the government would soon hold a meeting to discuss the issue with newspaper managements. He said a GO had been issued to constitute attack committees at district level with members from journalist associations to take immediate action and resolve all issues related to attacks on the scribes.

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Welfare fund for journalists mooted

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