The publishers of five major English and Tamil newspapers called on Chief Minister and AIADMK co-coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami at his camp office on Monday. They urged the MPs of his party to endorse certain demands they had made to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure the sustenance of the newspaper industry, which is facing huge losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On behalf of the publishers, the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) urged the PM to remove the customs duty on newsprint, settle outstanding advertisement bills immediately and increase advertisement rates by 100%.
N. Ram, Director, The Hindu Publishing Group, Manoj Kumar Sonthalia, Chairman & Managing Director, The New Indian Express Group, L. Adimoolam, Publisher, Dinamalar - Coimbatore, S. Balasubramanian Adityan, Director, Daily Thanthi and R.M.R. Ramesh, Managing Director, Kal Publications (Dinakaran) submitted a representation to the CM. They said the newspaper industry had incurred severe losses to the tune of around ₹5,000 crore during the past two months without revenue from advertisements. The industry, which was providing credible information to the masses by defeating misinformation through social media, among others, was facing huge losses across the world due to the spread of COVID-19, they pointed out in their representation.
“It is worrying that it would be a major challenge for the newspaper industry to continue to operate in the future,” they said.
Newspapers served people with credible information in the era of social media, which was spreading misinformation, they said and underlined that only newspaper reports were taken as evidence by the courts.
