By Nava Thakuria
A debate, one may call prejudiced, on the implementation of various financial schemes for media persons in India under a statutory wage board, is gaining momentum in Assam. The Justice Majithia Wage Board, instituted in 2007 for the benefit of newspaper & news agency employees including the journalists, which was recently endorsed by the Supreme Court of India has emerged as the prime mover of the debate.The apex court on April 9, 2014 while dismissing the plea of various newspaper managements (seeking review of its earlier judgment upholding the notification issued by the union government of India on November 11, 2011 directing the media groups to implement the Majithia Wage Board recommendations for journalists & non-journalist employees engaged in newspapers & news agencies) pointed out that the
recommendation were valid in law, based on genuine and acceptable considerations.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam with Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh dismissed the petitions filed by the Indian Newspaper Society, ABP private limited, Bennett Coleman & Co. limited, Ushodaya publications, Rajasthan Patrika private limited, Press Trust of India, United News of India among thers with observations that there was no merit in those.
The bench ruled that the wages for newspaper & news agency employees as revised by the new wage board shall be payable from November 11, 2011 and the arrears up to March 2014 should be paid to all eligible employees in equal installments within a year.
Earlier the Supreme Court in its judgment on February 7, 2014 upheld the recommendations of Majithia Wage Board.
For some media observers in Assam, the first victim of the apex court verdict is a Bengali newspaper, which is out of publications since March 31, 2014. The management of Shillong Times private limited closed down the publication of Sangbad Lahari, the Bengali daily simultaneously published from Guwahati & Shillong for ‘reasons beyond
its control’. The closure notice indicated the shutting down of Sangbad Lahari from the first day of April 2014.
The notice from the Shillong based management indirectly cited the cause for the development as the severe financial crisis. Amazingly the owner of Sangbad Lahari always claimed that it was not ‘a money-making venture but a social service for the esteem Bengali readers’. Manas Chaudhuri, a seasoned politician of Meghalaya whose
family owns the publication house, reiterated the mission as and when the explanations were needed.
Sangbad Lahari was first launched in Guwahati in 2009 and later its Shillong edition was started in July 2011. The then Meghalaya Governor RS Mooshahary released the first copy of Sangbad Lahari, which was in fact the first Bengali daily of the State. Chaudhuri, the then managing director of Shillong Times group was also present on the occasion to narrate his mission statement that it was not a profitable venture like many other media enterprises.
Prior to Sangbad Lahari, Assam witnessed the closing down of three daily newspapers and one satellite news channel in Guwahati during 2013. First it was the sudden closure of Sakaal Bela, a Bengali daily Seven Sisters’ Post, an English newspaper, following the collapse of Kolkata based Saradha Group of Companies, which owned both the media outlets.
It was followed by Prime News, a satellite news channel initially owned by Jiban Surakhya Group and Dainik Pratibimba, an Assamese daily run by RB Publications. Nearly 1000 media employees were rendered jobless by the shutting down of four media outlets within a year. The employees of three newspapers did not receive any compensation from the managements, but the television employees of Prime News could
compel its management staging a series of protests to release three months’ compensatory salaries to them at the time of closure.
Unconfirmed reports claim that few more daily newspapers of Assam are awaiting closure. The proprietors of those newspapers argue that they are only losing money with the media business and can not take more burden with the new wage board recommendations. The management of Ajir Dainik Batori, a popular Assamese daily published from Guwahati, has already issued a notice indicating the closure of
the daily by next month.
Assam has over 25 morning daily newspapers and thousands periodicals published in different languages. It hosts seven privately owned satellite news channels which beam news & other programs in various languages like Assamese, English, Hindi, Bengali
with other regional languages catering the need of nearly 60 million population of northeast India.
The journalist and non-journalist media employees engaged in various Guwahati based newspapers and news channels expressed their concern at the closure of Sangbad Lahari that rendered 100 employees jobless. They also demonstrated in front of Guwahati Press Club on Sunday March 30 covering their mouths with black clasps.
The agitators urged Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and Meghalaya chief minister Dr Mukul Sangma to pursuade the management to continue the publication of Sangbad Lahari. They also criticized the Shillong Times management for paying only one month’s salary to the employees of Sangbad Lahari as a token of support at the time of closure.
The All Assam Media Employees’ Federation (AAMEF) has lodged a complaint regarding the closure of Sangbad Lahari with the office of State labour commissioner. AAMEF president Hiten Mahanta observed with irritations that like other media houses of the region, the management of Sangbad Lahari also indirectly cited the reason of financial crisis for its closure.
’The media house owners have developed a habit to show a loss-making balance
sheet to avoid paying due salaries to the employees. But except few, it’s a common practice for all the media barons in Assam to divert funds from the collected amount of money from the advertisers to other non-media enterprises owned by their families,’ asserted Mahanta, who is also a veteran journalist of the State.
He added, ‘Thus the owners continue siphoning away the essential resource of the media groups for their selfish interest only to show the media business as an unprofitable endeavour.’ Mahanta appreciated the management of The Assam Tribune group of
newspapers for implanting the Majithia Wage Board recommendations for the first time in the country and argued that the Guwahati based pioneer media house has established that the latest wage board is very much implementable if the managements do have minimum commitments to the medium.
Meanwhile Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) came up with a statement that nearly 80% working journalists of Assam engaged in privately owned news channels are still performing their duties with pitiable salaries, unlimited working hours and without any facilities recommended by the country’s labour laws, not to speak of any media
pay board recommendations.
The Assam based scribes’ body urged both the Union labour and Information &Broadcasting ministries with the State government to look into the matter seriously
as the managements continue employing journalists both in print and electronic media for deplorable wages and deriving them of legitimate benefits.
’More over, we demand a social media audit from where the readers & viewers can find a transparent picture of the financial dealings involved with their favourite newspapers & news channels,’ said Rupam Barua, president of JFA adding that the exercise would ultimately help the media employees to get their due benefits as per the law of the land.
(The author – based in Guwahati, Assam – is Secretary, Asia Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists)
