June 27, 2020: Adapting to changing times by holding its first virtual National Executive Committee meeting, the Indian Journalist Union took into detailed account the dismal situation in the media sector since the pandemic broke out. It decided to appeal to the Government to look into stimulus packages that various European governments have announced for their media and initiate a similar one for the media in the country, as it had done for various other sectors.   

In the meeting, attended by 13 State affiliates, the IJU leadership expressed grave concern over the repressive approach being adopted by the Uttar Pradesh government towards journalists for their critical writing against the administration. Both IJU President Geetartha Pathak and Secretary General Sabina Inderjit urged their UP state affiliate not only to speak out against the deliberate harassment, monitor the cases but to initiate a campaign as UP is turning out to be the most dangerous State in the country for journalists.

Participant members shared the impact of COVID-19 in their respective States and it emerged that in comparison to the rest of the country, the media in the north eastern region was not as badly hit viz lay-offs and salary cuts of journalists. However, it was decided that affiliates must be prepared and deal with the overall impact the pandemic was having and prepare a plan, including educating members about their labour rights, as many were signing contracts which would allow easy retrenchment and becoming easy targets of managements.

Given that IJU is a federation, State leadership was advised to be more pro-active in media rights monitoring and vocal with issues affecting its members so that it would strengthen the voice at the national and global level. Reports of lay-offs and salary cuts by various media houses and number of portals are becoming near-normal and these need to be fought tooth and nail, it was decided.

Importantly, a note was made that while the Modi government was repeatedly comparing its handling of the pandemic with other countries and giving itself a pat on the back, it chose to remain silent on the grave situation in the media and what his counterparts in some European countries had done in this regard, The leadership said the government should not be selective and must initiate a package for the media, wherein media houses be it print, electronic or online portals were arbitrarily laying off staff and forcing salary cuts, even though many of these could possibly not be in the red in past three months. It was decided to write a letter to both Prime Minister Modi and Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar to draw their attention again and push for the package.

The meeting also decided that unions must now learn to live with a situation, where travel would be compromised, and that most of its functioning would now be digital and they should embark on reaching out to younger generation and organising training in this medium.