Attack On Press Freedom In India: Can Journalist Unions Return To Past Glory?

Enraged by the search and seizure operations at the homes of The Wire's founding editors by the Delhi Police Crime Branch that was acting on an FIR filed by Amit Malviya, chief of the BJP-IT cell, several press bodies and associations issued statements, strongly condemning the act. These included the Editors Guild of India, Press Club of India, Mumbai Press Club, Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists (BUJ) and People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), Press Association, Working News Cameraman Association, Indian Journalist Union, Digipub News India Foundation, Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), among others. 

Press bodies, associations and clubs even condemned recent instances of injustice against scribes Siddique Kappan, Fahad Shah, Mohammad Zubair, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, slain leftist rationalists and writers Gauri Lankesh, and many others. As India’s ranking went from 142 to 150 on the World Press Freedom Index 2022 after increasing reports of attacks, surveillance ‘snoop gate’ following the Narendra Modi government coming to power, these press bodies have increasingly become embroiled in battles for the protection and security of their members and the fraternity at large.  

Increasing hurdles

Journalism over the last 20 years has been a largely unorganised sector with most journalists being hired only as contractual employees. Little by little, press freedom is being curtailed.

In the recent past, the government scrapped the Working Journalists Act 1955 and the Fixation of wages Act 1956, without providing any alternative wage board structure. It enforced the 2021 Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, which critics point is a ploy to control digital news, social media, and OTT platforms that began to thrive in the lockdown. Then, after the Centre exercised its discretionary powers to introduce new rules governing the Press Council of India Act (1978), the Press Council while forming the new committee in 2022 quietly abjudicated journalist bodies and newspapers with an all-India presence, and opened doors for registered bodies like press clubs that only present in only one state.  

A glorious past

Till almost two decades ago, press unions were far more impactful. After Independence, the Indian Federation of Working Journalists was the first organisation formed by the first press commission after independence. The first press commission also constituted the Press Council, and was instrumental in ensuring journalists received due accreditation. Around the same time in 1950, the Press Club of India was founded, and like other bodies, most of its founding fathers had been part of the freedom movement. 

The Indian Journalists Union (IJU), the largest all-India body comprising a federation of state unions of journalists and associations like BUJ, DUJ, KWJU, came into being. The Working News Cameramen's Association (WNCA) was formed in the late 1980s after electronic media persons like photojournalists found the issues they faced on the field varied from print journalists. While IJU is based on the registrar of trade union act, WNCA is registered under the Association Act and is not a union. This is just a rough outline as the origin and overall timeline of countless other press bodies in India remain undocumented. However, these bodies in their heydays could make or break a news outlet.

SN Sinha, president, Head of the WNCA, recalls one year in the 90s, on Budget Day, when all the dailies in Delhi went on strike. The next day, not a single newspaper came out in the capital city! This was before the advent of television in India, and when for the public, newspapers was sacrosanct. Sinha, who was part of DJU then, remembers the call for the Budget Day strike was taken after the then Labour Minister, PA Sagma, and the government showed no inclination to provide a fresh wage structure after every five years as stated in the 1955 Act. 

“On Budget Day, the phones kept ringing, pressurising us to end the strike, but we stood our ground. At the 11th hour, just before announcing the Budget, the Parliament announced the constitution of a new wage structure, and we were called again to end the strike. But the strike was already on since morning as, offices were shut, and journalists were at their homes,” says Sinha. 

The WNCA head recalls other instances. When an FIR was filed against journalist Pawan Jaiswal, who exposed a government school in Mirzapur for serving roti with salt as mid-day meal, Sinha and other journalists protested at the district attorney’s office and immediately the case was withdrawn. After photojournalists Mohammad Akbar and son fell off a scooter and the latter suffered brain haemorrhage, the DUJ pressurised the government to dip into a journalist welfare fund, and finally Rs 1.50 lakh was granted as compensation. After the then DSP smashed the camera of a PTI journalist, WNCA immediately met and pressurised the police commissioner and home minister, and the Delhi police had to reimburse the scribe for his camera.

Veteran journalist K Sreenivas Reddy, President of IJU, recalls the time when the wage boards were in place that allowed a working journalist a good work-life balance. Apart from determining the pay structure in nine categories of media houses, the Act stated, all working journalists should have six working hours, and not eight, and that the ones on night duty, would have a five and a half hours shift. "Reporters and cameramen would have to be given just one assignment till they completed it, before moving on to the next,” says Reddy. 

The Andhra Union of Working Journalists, which Reddy is part of, fought and successfully brought back Andhra Jyothi, now the state’s No. 2 daily, which had closed down due to fraudulent management practices. It also took Eenadu, Telangana’s leading daily, from labour court to Supreme Court in an 11-year fight and won it on behalf of 11 staff members that the paper had to reappoint and compensate by paying more than a crore. 

Moreover, if an editor or working journalist disapproved of the editorial policy of the establishment and quit, they would immediately receive all statuary benefits as determined by the wage boards. "Those rights no longer exist. Journalists today are equated to sales representatives in labour courts. The government doesn’t want to see the existence of the fourth estate. And as with manufacturing soap, the management treats the newspaper/magazine like a product,” says Reddy.

Pillar of support

For journalists who died from Covid, the IJU and WNCA pursued the state and central government to offer compensation to the next of kin. Infact, the Press Club of India (PCI) president Umakant Lakhera says that for the first time in 42 years, all the 21 managing committee members on his panel won the PCI elections, and created history, “only because we worked hard, organised free vaccines to journalists, their families, drivers, maids.”

Lakhera says PCI has shaped the careers of many journalists because of the exposure it offers. For instance, he says, Pune’s FTII faculty recently organised two training courses with PCI members “to empower our journalists with technical training, so they can become YouTubers, make websites, and such.” PCI also brings out a monthly magazine called Scribes News that highlights voices from the journalistic fraternity. In the same, to boost the morale of its members, WNCA biannually hosts a photography exhibition at the Lalit Kala Akademi. 

The fight ahead

In light of the above, press bodies have demanded for an umbrella body to replace Press Council that creates a link between print, broadcast, digital and cable media. A joint statement by the National Alliance of Journalists (NAJ) and the DUJ in 2020. They have emphasised the need for a Media Commission that would include media persons, judiciary and other experts that could analyse the media, problems of monopoly and cross-media holdings, lack of revenue model other than government and private advertising, etc.

Can unions emerge stronger again?

Despite unions weakening and curbs continuing on press freedom, veteran journalists are positive the tides will turn. “Nobody expected this country to get independence after 200 years of British rule. The IT industry had no unions after the phase of liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation, but now unions are back in that sector,” says Reddy. Even if young journalists are not aware of the golden era of unionisation, the fact that many of them are speaking up without fear on a number of issues means there is hope, because they are taking ethical positions, and not as part of any organisations”, feels Geeta Seshu, co-founder of the voluntary, non-funded organisation, Free Speech Collective, and member of the Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists (BUJ). 

“I believe press unions will have a comeback. We may have weakened in metros, but in smaller places, we are much stronger. Initially, people enjoyed increased salaries brought by the contract system, but are now feeling the pinch. The US has only contractual employees, but also very strong associations and unions with fixed wage structures, and if you are not a member of the photojournalist association there, you will not get a job. This system exists in many European countries, and I hope it comes to India as well,” says Sinha.  

On October 29, 30 and 31, around 300 journalists attended IJU’s national conference in Chennai that passed 14 resolutions, including wage revision. The organisation plans to dedicate one day in January 2023 as All India Save Journalism Day. “India’s journalism, democracy is in danger. When journalism dies, democracy will die,” concludes Reddy.