Freedom of press is under attack

Wage board is the government's ploy to undermine the authority of the press. Lokmanya Tilak and Gandhiji came up with newspapers, which played a role in India's freedom struggle

Freedom of press is under attack

Wage board is the government's ploy to undermine the authority of the press. Lokmanya Tilak and Gandhiji came up with newspapers, which played a role in India's freedom struggle.

We got our freedom from the British rule but the freedom of press seems unbearable to our government.
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How can a journalist write fearlessly against the government when he or she knows that the same government decides his or her salary? Successive governments in India have found a simple way to try to control the press.
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Why is the government singling out the Print media? Why does it want to bring only newspapers under the purview of wage boards and why are TV, radio and online media not under the proposed wage board.

Singling out the news paper industry is like muzzling the freedom of press granted to media by the constitution.
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Thus, it resolutely ignores the recommendations of the National Commission on Labour, headed by the former Labour Minister, Ravinder Varma, 2002, which stated, "There is no need for any wage board, statutory or otherwise, for fixing wages for workers in any industry."

Hence, the primary motive of the wage board constituted only for newspapers and its illogical recommendations would only make the press dependent on the government. Fixing wage boards and giving arbitrary powers without adequate guidelines is not only undemocratic, but also an outright attempt to clip the wings of free press, which is against the constitution and against freedom of speech and expression as well.

How can newspaper establishments run their business when they have no say in the process of salary fixation of their own employees? This is outright manipulation and poses a serious threat to their survival.

As per the latest recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board, newspapers would have to pay peons and drivers up to Rs 45,000 to Rs 50,000 p.m.

Is the government paying this much tou00a0 the soldiers or jawans who are risking their lives? Is the government paying such a hefty salary to their primary school teachers and peons and policemen? No. Then how can the government expect the newspaper establishments to pay such fat salaries?

In this entire exercise, the government neither has to pay a single rupee of the wages nor does it have to bail out the newspapers which will surely become bankrupt if the wage board recommendations are followed.
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Justice Majithia Wage Board report recommends 80-100% salary hikes and, on top of that, the government has asked newspapers to pay an unprecedented Interim Relief @30% with effect from January 2008.

On the other hand, rates of DAVP advertisements are kept low to ensure that financially, newspapers remain weak forever. Why are DAVP ad rates not at par with market rates?

It is known to all that the people in power are publishing government advertisements even in little known and local level newspapers.

We cannot deny the fact that people in power are trying to please the media by doing them out-of-turn favors, hoping they would paint a rosy picture of the government.
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This shows the government's sheer double standards. Publicly, they will vouch for freedom of press in India, but covertly, through the Wage Board, they are trying to muzzle the press.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0