People's Democracy

On India’s Murdoch Eyeing UNI

S K Pande

FOR the first time in the county’s history after independence, a national news agency, United News of India, has been virtually handed over to a multiple business monopoly Media West, Essel, a group with motley interests including amusement parks, education, telecommunications, and IT. Add to it the fact of it being a leading media player with over 20 channels, DTH companies, cable distribution plus being a co-owner of the DNA with a Hindi newspaper chain.

The deal has taken place right in the capital of India after the government through its information minister, Priyaranjan Dasmunsi tried timidly to intervene following strong opposition from Left Parties in particular from the CPI(M) and the CPI  who wrote strong letters to the prime minister.  Not only this, in the past week as the board meeting to ratify the deal was set to take place on September 26, massive gatherings of solidarity with agitating UNI employees to prevent the sale took place. The united action committee of UNI employees acting in unison mobilised public opinion on the ground and civil liberty groups, media organisations from the Delhi Union of Journalists to the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) the All India Employees Federation and other media groups all chipped in.

As the government hum and hawed finally on  September 26, India’s emerging Murdoch, Zee TV supremo, Subhash Chandra got 60 per cent share holding of the wire agency even as employees protested outside a hotel where the meeting was taking place amidst heavy police arrangements.  It is now clear that Subhash Chandra and his brother Jawahar Goel were co-opted into the UNI board on Tuesday with a team comprising senior vice president of Essel Group P.C. Lahiri and C.S. Vishwanathan.

After the annual general body meeting, chairman of the board of directors, Santhalia said "the activities of the company which today comprise Hindi, English and Urdu news services and photographic services would be expanded to give it a global footprint by utilising existing resources, including the manpower. The intention of the founding fathers to have a viable news agency offering independent news subscribers would be reinforced," the statement adds.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of UNI rejected the move and said that the second phase of the battle was about to begin unless the matter was amicably settled.  Many felt that it was time for the government to stop dithering as it did in the Hindustan Times tangle -and intervene to save press freedom and check monopoly atleast in the sensitive newspaper agency. Meanwhile it is learnt that a seven-member board will also have Vir Sanghvi of HT Media as director.

Established in 1961, UNI was formed under Article 25 of the Companies Act which essentially meant that it was a no-profit agency and that all its income was to be ploughed back into it. Co-owned then by a clutch of five media houses- Hindustan Times, The Times of India, Anand Bazaar Patrika, The Hindu and Deccan Herald -who collectively contributed Rs 3,100 to own it, today it has 27 shareholders represented by nine directors, including the original five co-founders.

At present, UNI has over 1,000 subscribers in more than 100 locations in India and abroad. These include newspapers, radio and television networks, websites, government offices, and private and public sector companies.

The agency's communication network stretches over 90,000 km in India and the Gulf states, and it has bureaus in all major cities and towns of India. It has more than 325 staff journalists around the country and more than 250 stringers.

Soon after DNA's revelations UNI's staff went on the offensive. A 14-member action group was formed and an anguished press release was circulated but carried cautiously only by three Delhi dailies. Well attended protest meetings were held in UNI' backed by some editors, Delhi Union of Journalists and a variety of politicians from the Left to the Samajwadi, Congress and civil liberty groups. They all spoke in the same tenor; espousing the cause of freedom of the press versus freedom of the purse.

For many UNI workers the basic cause of anxiety was the total lack of transparency that accompanied the deal. With no visible negotiations between members of the board and Chandra, the grey areas began to look murky. It was said that one of the most controversial figures in the Indian media Chandra, often labeled as India's Mr Murdoch, is known to be a bone picker tycoon, one who could squeeze blood from stone. In constructing his media empire he was known to use a scalpel when required. Employees with inglorious track records and non-profitable departments had regularly been excised. No wonder UNI's employees -all of whom are on the journalist wage board--were apprehensive about large-scale retrenchment.  A Financial Express report suggested that 700 employees would be forced to take VRS.

Among the bodies the Delhi Union of Journalists called upon the government to save the leading premier news agency UNI from a total sell out to a big business house endangering not only jobs but the killing of basic structure of the national news agency. It expressed total solidarity with the Joint Action Committee to save UNI and called for negotiations. In a statement, the Delhi Union of Journalists said that “after our experience in the newspapers, it is our firm view that the two premier news agencies the UNI and the PTI along with their language services should be allowed to flower and bloom rather than provide an entry to big monopolies to kill an institution.”. A land grab  campaign is on, it said and premier land has gone for a pittance and jobs endangered. “

The facts are there for all to see, amidst strong Left protests, and letters to the PM, the Union Information and Broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi on September 25, 2006 requested United News of India (UNI) to postpone its board meeting in view of representations sent to the prime minister and himself against the proposed sale of a major stake in the news agency to a single media group.  His appeal, it is clear was unheeded and he had only asked for postponement ‘if possible’.

Talking to reporters on the eve of the deal he said, “the postponement is to secure more time for the government to study the issue in depth and interact with the employees and present management of UNI, besides the Essel Group.  We have to study the UNI character with the government, its balance sheet and losses of subscribers over the years.  At the same time, in a liberalised environment, it is not right to say that an entity cannot sell its equity.” (Report from The Hindu September 26, 2006)

With this the livelihood of more than thousand journalists and other employees in the pivotal news agency is at stake.  The multinational corporate houses have slowly started swallowing the Indian media particularly news agencies and newspaper risking the freedom of press, democracy and the security of the country.  The more than 500 crore asset of UNI is at stake.  It is becoming a general trend of deliberately rendering viable ventures into loss making units to enable the sale, which must be decried.

The sudden move of UNI board of directors to change overnight the impartial character of the 45 year old news agency has shocked its employees, who came together instantly against the move.

On September 15, the employees of the UNI declared their resolve in a huge gathering on the UNI lawns to stall the sinister design, basically aimed at grabbing the land and buildings of UNI at prime locations across the country, worth crores.

It is now clear that Media West picked up 60 percent stake.  When asked, the management could not answer on the prime issues like ‘hire and fire’, VRS and about changing the basic character of UNI that was registered under Section 25 of the Company’s Act.