GUWAHATI, Nov 13: Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has greeted all the media person of the State ahead of National Press Day. However the Assam based scribes body argues that most of the working journalist and other media employees of the region are still performing their duties with pitiable salaries and other due benefits under the national labour law. Amidst this depressing environment, the recent declaration of Assam government to include working journalists under the pension schemes came as pleasant news, said a JFA statement signed by president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria. The JFA also expresses its solidarity to the Assam IPR minister Basanta Das regarding his recent comment about the ongoing suffering of journalists as most of the media houses in Assam have not implemented the recommendations of the statutory wage board for the benefit of their employees. The scribes body also believes that the public observation by a minister on the plight of media employees in Assam will finally pave way for an amicable solution to the present problem that is faced by thousands of media workers across the State. Understating the financial constrain of the media houses, the JFA urges the State government to hike the advertisement rate comparing to other States of the country for all the government advertisements meant for newspaper & news channels of Assam. Moreover it insists on regular release of advertisement revenues to the media houses by the government. However, the JFA emphasized, the money received from those advertisement revenues should go for the welfare of the concerned employees of the media houses as it becomes a regular practice for many media groups to divert fund with an aim to present a loss-making balance sheet in every financial year. Finally the JFA appeals to the State chief minister Tarun Gogoi, labour minister Prithvi Majhi and all the responsible trade union media bodies to take the role of the sentinel so that the media employees of Assam can have a dignified life with the basic minimum facilities recommended by the law of the land. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
