Journalists being abused for ‘factory style news stories on tap’: Mumbai Press Club
Journalist Nikhil Wagle's car was attacked last month in Mumbai for writing an opinion piece (Image credit A @MumbaiPressClub)
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, March 3: Mumbai Press Club has issued an open letter to Editors and Media Houses to draw attention to claims of “harassment and abuses” of journalists. The Mumbai Press Club has also claimed that journalists and photographers are being subjected to pressure to deliver “factory style news stories on tap”.
The Mumbai Press Club had issued the open letter to Editors and Media Houses on Friday. But there has been no visible acknowledgement from either editors or the media houses. The Mumbai Press Club has spotlighted that the “relentless demand, with sparse logistical support and a shortage of staff, often leads to an atmosphere of stress and anxiety in the workplace, which can, in turn, lead to debilitating consequences”.
The open letter was issued by the Mumbai Press Club in the wake of the sudden death of a reporter working in a daily in Mumbai. The Mumbai Press Club said: “The recent collapse and death of a senior reporter of a daily newspaper in Mumbai is a tragic example of this newspaper pressure to be one-up on the rivals.”
The Mumbai Press Club also claimed that the media houses are resorting to unethical practices as means to gain attention. It said that “an editor of a news channel asked a journalist to create a ruckus during the press conference of a Congress politician”. The open letter mentioned that the said journalist resigned when he was pressured to create the ruckus in the Congress presser.
The Mumbai Press Club also stated that the “bureau chiefs and editors have been found to be insensitive and even complicit in making working conditions worse”. It also raised the issue of the health of journalists getting adversely affected because of the toxic news room demands of the bureau chiefs and editors.
The Press Club of India (PCI) had also documented accounts of journalists summarily sacked from their jobs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The journalists had told the PCI tales of being sacked from their jobs without the media houses adhering to the norms of the labour laws.
The Mumbai Press Club also stated that the last few years have been trying for the media persons on the back of “job curs, layoffs, and non-renewal of contracts”. It also stated: “To counter, the financial challenges, journalists are being stretched to breaking point, which has made working conditions unbearable”.
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