Demanding a Media Council in India
Guwahati: Media persons of Assam have raised voice for a powerful media council in the country comprising both the newspaper and electronic media organs on National Press Day today across the country. The empowered new council, in the line of India’s present press council which surfaced on 16 November 1966, should work as a moral watchdog to ensure the press freedom and also quality journalism in the country, said Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) representing the media persons. The JFA, in a statement issued to the media, however decried that the Assam based working journalist and other media employees of the region are still performing their duties with pitiable salaries and other due benefits under the country’s labour law. “Amidst the depressing environment, we appreciate the declaration of Assam government to include working journalists under the pension schemes from this year,” said Rupam Barua, president of the State based scribes body. The JFA also expressed its solidarity to the Assam information and public relations 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. It also argued that the public observation by a minister on the plight of media employees in Assam would finally pave the 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 also urged 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 insisted 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. It alleged that the proprietors of many media groups based in Assam have made it a habit to divert the collected funds for other personal heads 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 sentinels 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
