People's Democracy

Scribes & Press Workers March To Parliament

JOURNALISTS from Kerala and Delhi along with Delhi press workers marched to parliament on December 3 to demand a fresh wage board and  early interim relief. Condemning the continuing press bashing in Kerala, they also demanded reinstatement of the 400 Hindustan Times employees,  payment of  dues to starving Patriot workers and an end to harassment of employees in The Statesman.

The call for the rally had  been given by the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) and Delhi State Newspaper Employees Federation (DSNEF).   

Carrying placards “Constitute wage board immediately”; “Stop press bashing in Kerala”; “ Reinstate 400 HT employees”; “ Pay Patriot workers’ dues” and “Stop jungle law  in Statesman”, they assembled at the Kerala House from different parts of the city before proceeding to parliament.

The large gathering was addressed, among others, by veteran journalist Kuldip Nayyar,  CPI(M) Polit Bureau member S Ramachandran Pillai, CPI(M) MPs K Chandran Pillai, Suresh Kurup and MPs  P K Vasudevan Nair, Francis George, N K Premachandran, CPI secretary D Raja, DUJ president S K Pande, All India Newspaper Employees Federation leader Santosh Kumar and DSNEF leaders S N Sinha and  Roop Chand besides key KUWJ functionaries Bobby Abraham, C Gouridasan Nair and D Vijayamohan Nair.

The KUWJ also organised a convention later in the day which was addressed, among others, by members of parliament C S Sujatha and P Karunakaran (both CPI-M), MPs Veerendra Kumar, N K Premachandran, journalists Hiranmoy Karlekar, V K Madhavan Kutty and  Arun Chacko.

The meeting unanimously passed a resolution condemning the continuing attacks on journalists, unprecedented  in the history of the state. The meeting took note of the suggestion made by the DUJ president S K Pande for observance of an all-India anti- press bashing day. (INN)