IJU Strongly Condemned The Sacking Of Hundreds Of Working Journalists By Big Media Chains

Hyderabad/Chandigarh, June 1 (Maxim News): The Indian Journalists Union (IJU), the largest and most representative organisation of the working journalists in the country, strongly condemned the sacking of hundreds of working journalists and other media staff by the big media chains in the country without following due process of law when the country was going through a grim war against the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The sacking of hundreds of journalists and loss of jobs in small and medium newspaper sector weakened the flow of credible news and calibrated views curated by professional journalists and forcing the people to depend on unreliable and fake news circulated in the social or unregulated media without any gatekeeping.

In a statement issued here on Monday, K Sreenivas Reddy, President and Balwinder Singh Jammu, Secretary-General said the Hindustan Times group which publishes Hindustan Times (English), Hindustan (Hindi) and Mint (Financial daily) closed down or downsized several publication centres, news bureaux of these papers across the country and secured forced resignations from more than 200 journalists including senior editors, violating the laws of the land. The journalists were told either to resign or face termination by the editors and HR managers, which was most unethical and illegal.

The Times of India, which claims to be the largest circulated English daily in the world, and its sister publications sacked hundreds of working journalists across the country and closed several of its language publications. Several other media houses publishing English and Hindi newspapers in the country cut down their editorial and reporting staff numbering about two thousand journalists. Aaj Tak Delhi from the stables of India Today announced the closure of its operation from the end of this month rendering hundreds of journalists jobless.

More than twenty thousand journalists working for the small and medium newspapers were rendered jobless as the newspapers were closed down due to circulation network problems and loss of advertisement revenue. The part-time correspondents or stringers for major newspapers in semi-urban and rural areas of the country lost their livelihood as the pages were cut reducing the news coverage from the hinterlands.

Sreenivas Reddy and Balwinder Jammu said “the illegal sacking of thousands of journalists in print and electronic media bodes ill for the democracy, the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press besides weakening the nation’s fight against the deadly pandemic which already claimed more than five thousand lives. We do recognise that the news media industry is facing an existential crisis due to loss of

circulation and advertisement revenue and firmly believe that the sacking of journalists is not the best way to tide over the difficult situation.

“The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) calls upon the Central and State Governments to restrain the newspaper managements from illegally sacking the journalists and other media staff and come to the rescue to the news media industry by providing financial aid to the stressed media houses. We also demand that the Central and State Governments should immediately release the advertisement dues to the media
immediately.”

The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) called upon the representative organisations of the working journalists and the editors in the country to take urgent steps to save the jobs of the working journalists which were vital to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic and to save the people and democracy in the country. (Maxim News)