New Delhi, 10 September 2020: The Indian Journalists Union expresses serious concern at the termination of services of three senior most journalists by The Shillong Times, a leading English daily published from Shillong, Meghalaya.

The three senior most journalists were sacked summarily without serving any show cause and enquiry which is mandated by the labour laws.  The reason of sacking of the Journalists as mentioned in the termination letter is 'COVID-19 related reasons'

which cannot be accepted as there are no such provision for summery sacking of Journalists in the laws governing the services of journalists, the IJU affirms.

In a statement IJU President and former member of Press Council of India Geetartha Pathak and Secretary General and IFJ Vice President Sabina Inderjit said that The Shillong Times earlier has resorted to salary cut in the name of financial constraint due to the pandemic and also forced its staff including Journalists to work in a Covid-19 exposed environment. The journalists and other staff of the daily are very much cooperative with the management,which is why they have not protested against the salary cut understanding the stress on media revenue.

 The IJU leaders said that sacking of journalists at such a hard time is inhuman and not acceptable. They also said that The Shillong Times being a leading daily was enjoying the lion's share of government's advertisement revenue and other incentives since last 75 years and they have all the strength to withstand a few month's pandemic generated temporary crisis. IJU joins The Shillong Times staff with solidarity for protesting against the illegal termination of services of the three journalists.

 The union demands the management to take back the termination order against the three senior most journalists and also urges the State government to take suitable action against the newspaper management for the illegal termination of services of the journalists, illegal pay cuts and violating wage board's provisions.