July 10, 2016
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DUJ & Press Unity Centre Call for Joint Action in Mid July

THE Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) and the Press Unity Centre have called for a phased programme of action, this coming monsoon session of parliament to fight the menace of increasing attacks on press persons, for proper implementation of the wage board award, (even as a new one had become due) and for extension of the Working Journalists Act to the electronic media. In a joint meeting the two organisations, it was unanimously resolved that the time has come for a autonomous Media Commission, in the lines of the First And Second Press Commission to examine the structure of the media to save journalism for tomorrow. The meeting welcomed the secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Working Journalists Federation (APWJF) Kondaiah who announced that the APWJ would fight in unison with the DUJ and its friends on common demands. He further called for the widest unity across the country in a confederative spirit as was possible in the previous wage board. Contracts of bondage, even against permanent posts were lambasted. The plight of freelance journalists and part time correspondents besides the necessity of a wide spectrum media council with the electronic media in it along with a proper pension scheme was the need of the hour. The meeting demanded justice to the workers and journalists of Hindustan Times. The recent HT judgment was also examined. It also took note of struggle in Jagran, Sahara, and the fact that the UNI employees were not getting salaries on time. DUJ president S K Pande recalled how the Confederation of Newspaper and News Agencies Employees Organisations and the DUJ along with some others were instrumental in the previous wage board announcement. Of course there were fighting plant unions also in Delhi, he said. Greater unity is now necessary he added.