People's Democracy

DUJ to Press for Scribes’ Freedom, Job Security

AT an emergency meeting of its national council members and executive and special invitees, held at New Delhi on July 2, the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) has urged for the widest possible unity on common issues not only to save the wage board but to save journalism itself as a profession from increasing encroachments on its freedom through arbitrary contracts, voucher payments, clear contracts of bondage and concerted attempts to kill the Working Journalists Act.

Presided over DUJ president Sujata Madhok, the meeting unanimously resolved to mobilise its members and well wishers in the journalists and press movement to rally in unity to save journalism for tomorrow, safeguard the Working Journalists Act, and to rebuff the moves to impose the bondage through clear violation of all journalistic and trade union norms and increasing unfair labour practices.

The meeting paid its heartfelt condolences to livewire journalist for over 55 years, Mr Balraj Mehta, who died at a ripe old age recently. The DUJ said Mehta gave a grassroots approach to journalism and recalled his services to the union in its infancy and later on through prolific writings.

Through another resolution, the DUJ meeting decided to send an eight point charter of demands to both the centre and the state governments. These demands are as below.

1) Check on cross-media ownership, which the government was seeking to enhance through various agencies.

2) Immediate setting up of an all-media spectrum Media Commission in the lines of the first and second Press Commissions to look into new media relationships that have emerged over the last two decades.

3) Setting up of a Media Council to replace the present Press Council, a council which would to cover all forms of media --- print and electronic.

4) A commission to look into all unfair labour practices in Delhi’s newspaper industry.

5) Constitution of a wage board implementation machinery immediately and provision of immediate relief to all employees covered by the wage board, who were arbitrarily dismissed after the announcement of the wage board.

6) Declaration of a five day week in the newspaper industry to save the contract journalists and workers along with their permanent colleagues.

7) A common and permanent wage implementation machinery for the entire media spectrum.

8) Ensuring that journalists in the print, electronic and broadcasting media are brought under the ambit of the Working Journalists Act.

Reiterating its demand for a platform of national unity based on the confederative spirit, the DUJ cautioned its members against all divisive and disruptive tendencies at the national level. A spirit of tolerance was required to ensure a united movement over the next few months. The meeting took note of letters received from two Indian Journalists Union splinters --- one of which held a meeting in Delhi and the other which was planning to meet in Kochi in August 2013. It called for a united rally during the monsoon session of parliament. Incidentally, the wage board hearing is on July 9.

A resolution on the serious situation in Uttarakhand and the massive devastation was adopted along with an appeal to the media persons and the Press Council to take adequate steps to ensure a fair and humanistic coverage of the havoc and its impact on pilgrims and the people of Uttarakhand. It called for restrained reporting to prevent competitive politicking by select politicians and hailed the role played by the armed and paramilitary forces. It called for all attempts to ensure that jingoism by state governments do not aggravate the situation.

An extended DUJ executive and national council meeting along with special invitees was slated for July 6, 2013.