Lok Sabha Debates
Need To Set Up A Media Commission With A View To Safeguard The Interest Of Employees ... on 25 April, 2005
Title: Need to set up a Media Commission with a view to safeguard the interest of employees of electronic and print media. – Laid.
SHRI SWADESH CHAKRABORTTY (HOWRAH): *Sir, the electronic and print media have taken big strides in the country over the past decade and more. But the working and service conditions of media persons have deteriorated in both the print and electronic media. The freedom of the Press in now threatened more by employers and the managers than by the political establishment and muscle power. The large-scale resort to the contract system by both newspapers and news channels seriously threatens job security of media persons. In the case of newspapers, this has made a mockery of the working journalists (conditions of Service) Act and reduced Wage Board awards. Almost all the newspapers with some exceptions are violating the Act with impunity. This has reference to the arbitrary sack of 326 permanent employees by the Hindustan Times Management. The story of the electronic media is no different.
I, therefore, urge upon the Government to appreciate the gravity and urgency of the matter and set up a fully empowered Media Commission to go through the entire gamut of the information and recommend effective action to strengthen the institutional framework.
* Laid on the Table .