Today is Indian Newspaper Day, commemorating the publication of India’s first newspaper, Hicky’s The Bengal Gazette, on January 29, 1780.
To mark the occasion, a group of media trade unions and organisations issued a joint press statement warning against the “proposed Labour Codes that will demolish the Working Journalists’ Acts and our basic rights”.
Newslaundry had reported in 2019 on how the Working Journalists’ Acts of 1955 and 1958 will be subsumed by the new labour codes being considered by the central government. The strategy for their rollout is likely to be announced in the forthcoming budget.
The press release demanded the Working Journalists’ Act be “restored in its original form and extended to cover the electronic and the digital media”, saying it “cannot be subsumed under the Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code”.
“The social role that the media performs in strengthening and upholding democracy cannot be understated. It needs to be treated differently and the rights of journalists need to be protected at all times,” said the statement signed by the Delhi Union of Journalists, Kerala Union of Working Journalists, Press Club of India, National Alliance of Journalists, Press Association, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Andhra Pradesh Working Journalists’ Federation, and Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists.
The statement said the Indian media has “come a long way” since 1780 but in recent years, “the press as a whole has seen unfair setbacks in the form of arbitrary layoffs, unfair labour practices and deteriorating working conditions”.
“Bodies like the Press Council have been rendered redundant over the years. The press, just as it was censored during the British Raj under one pretext or the other, faces similar pressures. Additionally, its corporatization poses a severe threat to the rights of journalists and to the nature of journalism itself,” it said.
The groups said journalists and press workers “work way beyond” the hours stipulated under the Working Journalists (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Rules.
“Journalists are expected to be on call at all hours of the day and work simultaneously on the print, digital and electronic space – all within the same pay package,” the statement said.
It also demanded the constitution of “an independent and statutory Media Commission to look into working conditions of and harassment of journalists by state and non-state actors”, and reiterated the “long-pending constitution” of the Wage Board.
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