Sunday, July 09, 2006

By Gyan Pathak

In the whole month of June 2006 and in the first few days of July 2006, an old advertising policy was in operation. However, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India while announcing the New Advertisement Policy on Tuesday, July 4, 2006 said that it was effective from June 1, 2006. As the proverb goes, morning shows the day, it is anybody's guess as to what is going to happen with this new policy with many loopholes. The tilt is clearly towards DAVP and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The worst part of the policy is that the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP), the nodal agency of the Government of India for advertising by various Ministries and organizations of Government of India including public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies, will only “avoid” releasing advertisements to newspapers/journals, which incite or tend to incite communal passion, preach violence, offend the sovereignty and integrity of India or socially accepted norms of public decency and behavior. There is no commitment that DAVP will not release advertisements to such newspapers and journals for which the nation bears the cost from the exchequer.
Obviously, the government has left much elbow room for its arbitrary actions in future in the matter of releasing and stopping advertisements to certain newspapers or journals which they might happen to dislike for any reason whatsoever. A publisher cannot claim for advertisements on the ground of assistance because this policy declares that government advertisements are not intended to be financial assistance to newspapers/journals. However, there is no bar on claiming advertisements on the ground of serving the backward or remote regions, societies or languages etc. It is well known fact that government advertisements are indirectly financial assistance to the small and medium newspapers and journals, and even in this policy there are many provisions included. It means the policy gives vast discretionary powers to the officials of DAVP.
The new policy fails to address the much needed action of streamlining of all the central government advertisements from all the ministries, departments, autonomous bodies etc. It only says that all Central Govt. advertisements will be routed through DAVP. All attached offices, autonomous organizations and PSUs under the Ministries/Departments will also route their advertisements through DAVP. The use of “will” indicates that it is a simple policy, and it is not binding on them to do so. As against this there is a binding on them in the matter of payment for the released advertisements, because in the next clause the policy says, “All Ministries / Departments shall pay for all type of advertisements including tender, recruitment & display.” The only incentive to the Ministries, departments or autonomous bodies is that DAVP will henceforth not charge 13 per cent departmental charges.
It is good that there shall be a Panel Advisory Committee (PAC) for considering applications of newspapers/journals for being empanelled for receiving Government advertisements. However, the constitution of this committee is faulty and heavily tilted towards the government. There will be one representative each from the Associations of big, medium and small newspapers while there will always be majority of government officials which ensures that a government establishment can spend money in whatever manner it might want to. We have already seen huge public expenditures on advertisements by our political establishments to enhance their political prospects. The new policy fails to check such misuse of the exchequer.
Look at the constitution of this Committee that shall be headed by Director General, DAVP. It includes Addl. Director General (Media & Communication)/Deputy Director General (Media & Communication) in the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Press Registrar/Deputy Press Registrar and Director/Deputy Secretary/ Under Secretary in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting dealing with Print Media. The recommendations of the PAC as accepted by the DG, DAVP regarding empanelment of a newspaper will usually be final. One can guess as to why the word “usually” is inserted in the policy. There must be something extraneous in the minds of our planners to accommodate some external decisions.
Moreover, the very constitution of the PAC is faulty on other grounds also. There will be no representative of journalists who actually runs the show and maintain quality and readability of the newspapers or journals. If representatives from the Press Information Bureau are alright then why should there be no representative from journalists' organizations to give non-official independent advice. What is the logic behind constituting a committee of interested parties only - one being (government) the giver of advertisements, and the second being publishers? The committee of givers and takers may err without any independent member. And there should have been some independent members because we spend public money on advertisements.
There is yet another fault in the constitution of PAC. It does not allow representatives from two other categories - Language newspapers and Newspapers/journals published in backward, remote and border areas - for which government is going to give priority (as claimed) in empanelment in pursuance of broad social objectives and for ensuring fairness among various categories of newspapers and journals. Who is to tell the committee in its meetings that their decisions are not fair for language papers and the papers being published in backward, remote and border areas, especially when there will be no representative from them?
DG, DAVP, as Chairman of the Panel Advisory Committee, will have discretion to grant provisional empanelment to a newspaper, subject to approval of the PAC, for a period of six months or till the next meeting of the PAC if the newspaper has completed all the formalities required for empanelment and otherwise found suitable for issue of Government advertisements. This provision gives enough power to DG, DAVP to oblige certain newspapers and periodicals which might be fulfilling the criteria in his/her opinion.
Newspapers/journals are classified into three categories, namely i) Small, with a circulation of up to 25,000 copies per publishing day. ii) Medium, between 25,001 and 75,000 copies per publishing day, and iii) Big, with a circulation of above 75,000 copies per publishing day.
The policy claims to achieve fairness in dealing with all categories of newspapers. However, the fact is, it is heavily against small and medium newspapers, and totally against very small newspapers and periodicals. Because of this policy their survival will be at stake. It may throttle the very voice of the backward and the small which generally does not get space in comparatively bigger newspapers/journals. Even when they get their voice published they carry only second or third hand sensibility of such smaller groups or sections of the society. For example, what will happen to the newspapers/periodicals for the blind which do not have a paid minimum circulation of 2000 or even 500 as permitted in case of publishing from a backward region?
There is no doubt that the new policy has hit hard the very small newspapers and journals having paid circulation of less than 2000 copies. They shall not be considered eligible for empanelment. However, newspapers and journals in Sanskrit, newspapers and journals being published in backward border or remote areas or in tribal languages or those published in Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and North-Eastern States need a circulation of only 500 copies for this purpose.
Criteria for empanelment have been made tough for them. Now they will have to wait for three years as against one year in the past.
The policy has set a reasonable standard for newspapers and periodicals which includes the provision that there should be no reproduction of news items or articles from other newspaper/journals and the source of news/articles should be mentioned. This may improve the working conditions of journalists because many newspapers/periodicals are engaged in such illegal activities. One of the provisions says that all the publications must carry editorial.

However, the policy gives certain relief also. All the newspapers and periodicals are given chance for fresh applications for empanelment twice a year. There would be no circulation check for the small newspapers and journals claiming circulation up to 6,000. This may give relief to the small publishers, but then there will be room for them to lie.
All empanelled newspapers will be asked to enter into a rate contract, which will be valid for a particular circulation and a period of 3 years. However, a change in circulation can be effected every year based on the evidence as prescribed in the criterion for empanelment during the period of validity of the contract. The publishers will be losers because of the price escalations. Till recently this period was only one year.

The end of the role of Registrar of Newspapers of India in circulation check is indeed a bad policy. Now its role has been replaced by a statutory auditor and chartered accountants. Publications will now be able to furnish authenticated figures of circulation from cost accountant or statutory auditor or chartered accountant in the prescribed format when they claim circulation up to 75,000. For circulation above 75,000, Audit Bureau of Circulation certificate would be required, says the new policy. Those publications would be considered regular which have been published at least 25 days in each month (for a daily) during preceding 12 months. Weeklies should have published 46 issues during the preceding year, fortnightlies 23 issues and monthlies 11 issues during the preceding year to be considered being brought out regularly.

Bigger publications have been favoured by the provision that says, “Newspapers/journals having established circulation of more than 75,000 copies per publishing day, as certified by Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) can seek empanelment of their fresh edition from a new place after having regular publication for preceding 4 months with same title.”
While releasing advertisements, DAVP will prepare a suitable media list keeping in view the content, the target audience or the advertisement and availability of funds after consideration of the recommendations of the client. It will make efforts to release more advertisements to periodicals especially social messages and advertisements which are not date specific. Efforts will also be made to release more advertisements to newspapers “with special emphasis on” North East, J&K and other remote areas. “With special emphasis on” does not mean “publishing in”, and therefore, there is much scope for publications outside the above mentioned areas of getting more benefit from this policy.
As far as releasing display advertisements is concerned, DAVP is to ensure a balance between various categories of newspapers taking into account circulation, language, coverage area etc. However, the two sets of categories specified for this purpose, will have much scope of differing interpretations and an official will be free to choose from.
See these two set of categories.

Small not less than 10% (expenditure)
Medium not less than 30%
Big not more than 60%

English 35% Approx.
Hindi 35% Approx.
Other Languages 30% Approx.

One is free to begin with the first set of categories. When one first considers small publications that are not to get less than 10 percent share of the ad revenue, he/she will divide this available fund among all small English, Hindi and other language publications. If one desires to consider English publications first from the second set, which are to get 35 percent of the revenue, he/she will divide that amount among all small, medium and big English publications. The results will be different in both the calculations. The benefits may go up and down due to many possible permutations and combinations of these two sets of categories.
In brief, the nation needed more clear and unambiguous advertising policy, which the Centre failed to furnish. (EOM)