The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has told the Supreme Court that the Centre and state governments advertising arms owe between Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 1,800 crore to various media houses going by industry estimates.

In an affidavit, INS told the top court that the financial constraints faced by the media industry were also flagged by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA). The association, in a separate affidavit, submitted before the top court that due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the industry is facing unprecedented financial constraints and has been "extremely severely affected". The NBA contended that no packages or measures have been announced for news broadcasters so far by the government, as the businesses are on the brink of collapse.