Editorial Desk :
The government appointed the Ninth Newspaper Wage Board announced its decision to award 45% dearness allowance to journalists, employees and workers of newspapers and news agencies on March 27th this year. The new wage board award is expected to be effective from September of this year, as per a statement of the Information Minister on April 23 of this year.
The newspaper owners have been complaining that the Wage Board has been constituted as such that the award can be given completely ignoring financial reality prevailing in the newspaper world as a way of pleasing the journalists most impractically. The Wage Board under the Ministry of Information is designed in Ayub Khan days to influence press freedom. No newspaper was ever able to implement the award in full. The newspaper owners being in a difficult situation has always been under duress for making practical adjustments.
The award is working as process of dishonesty and corruption in the press
In a letter, the wage board asked the Information Ministry to take necessary action to implement the decision to award the dearness allowance against their basic salary. Why the government should be asked to take action for implementation the dearness allowance? There are unions and there is law. It is most unfortunate that the judges become involved in controversial role of playing in the hands of the anti-press freedom elements.
It is essential that wage increases represent minimum wages but not full scales of wages comparing highly paid government officials. The newspaper owners would be too happy to arrange the best possible wages for the journalist in consultation with the union leaders in the interest of keeping the newspapers independent of government interference. But the dictatorial regimes found the wage board process an easy way of exerting financial pressure on the press.
In Bangladesh the situation is worse in the sense that most of the journalists are not journalists. They are openly biased political activists of the government party or the main opposition party anxious to get extra gains from the government.
The present government has been very generous in distributing financial largess among government officials, army and police. It will be only just and fair if the government shows same kind of generosity to hard pressed journalists.
Our advice is that the generous government with public money should also be generous about the journalists and the DA should be given by the government as its gift of generosity, because most of the newspapers are unable to pay monthly wages on time.
The journalists are not helpless labours, they are quite capable of acting through unions to realise just wages for them. They should not be dependent on the government for fixing their wages if they still believe in press freedom.
The government appointed the Ninth Newspaper Wage Board announced its decision to award 45% dearness allowance to journalists, employees and workers of newspapers and news agencies on March 27th this year. The new wage board award is expected to be effective from September of this year, as per a statement of the Information Minister on April 23 of this year.
The newspaper owners have been complaining that the Wage Board has been constituted as such that the award can be given completely ignoring financial reality prevailing in the newspaper world as a way of pleasing the journalists most impractically. The Wage Board under the Ministry of Information is designed in Ayub Khan days to influence press freedom. No newspaper was ever able to implement the award in full. The newspaper owners being in a difficult situation has always been under duress for making practical adjustments.
The award is working as process of dishonesty and corruption in the press
In a letter, the wage board asked the Information Ministry to take necessary action to implement the decision to award the dearness allowance against their basic salary. Why the government should be asked to take action for implementation the dearness allowance? There are unions and there is law. It is most unfortunate that the judges become involved in controversial role of playing in the hands of the anti-press freedom elements.
It is essential that wage increases represent minimum wages but not full scales of wages comparing highly paid government officials. The newspaper owners would be too happy to arrange the best possible wages for the journalist in consultation with the union leaders in the interest of keeping the newspapers independent of government interference. But the dictatorial regimes found the wage board process an easy way of exerting financial pressure on the press.
In Bangladesh the situation is worse in the sense that most of the journalists are not journalists. They are openly biased political activists of the government party or the main opposition party anxious to get extra gains from the government.
The present government has been very generous in distributing financial largess among government officials, army and police. It will be only just and fair if the government shows same kind of generosity to hard pressed journalists.
Our advice is that the generous government with public money should also be generous about the journalists and the DA should be given by the government as its gift of generosity, because most of the newspapers are unable to pay monthly wages on time.
The journalists are not helpless labours, they are quite capable of acting through unions to realise just wages for them. They should not be dependent on the government for fixing their wages if they still believe in press freedom.
