Owing to the growing pressure of the working journalists and their umbrella
organisation, the FNJ and the Ministry of Communication and Information
Technology (MoCIT) had set the minimum wages for journalists, but many media
houses have not implemented it even six months after the government announced
the new policy in October 18 last year.
The issue has become a cross-cutting one as some large
media houses enter into the ring with the government against the implementation
of the new policy, claiming that the mandatory provision to submit the bank
statement of the journalists’ salary and pay roll to the Department of
Information and Broadcasting (DoIB) also created a threat to the right to
privacy.
In this backdrop, The Rising Nepal talked with Chairman of Minimum
Wage Fixation Committee (MWFC) Gangadhar Parajuli, Director General of the Department
of Information Balkrishna Ghimire and Federation of Nepali Journalists
Secretary Ram Prasad Dahal at Gorkhapatra Corporation’s weekly event
‘Gorkhapatra Sambad' on Sunday. Excerpts:
No risk of
breach in individual privacy
Most of the problems emerged
in absence of proper business plan – including human resource, market area and
media type.
Balkrishna Ghimire
The government had announced to increase the salary of
the working journalist by 25 per cent on 18 October 2018, and it is in the
process of implementation. But, some media houses have raised the issue of
individual privacy as the government has demanded the pay-roll, bank statement
of the salary deposit and appointment letter of the journalist.
There is no
risk of breaching the individual privacy since the documents are being
collected to prepare reports on the media houses so that the government can
provide facilities and incentives to the media houses. We are just following
the instructions of the new provision. Salary should be deposited into the bank
account of the respective employee and the payment should be proved by the bank
with a valid document. We demand the copy of it.
We accept even if there is no document from the media
house but the employee has proved that the said amount was deposited into his
account. I would like to assure that the information will be kept confidential
and wouldn’t be shared with anyone except the court and investigation bodies.
Many media houses in Nepal are established without
proper business plan. Most of the problems emerged in absence of proper
business plan – including human resource, market area and media type.
The issue of payment
from banking channel, bank statement and payment are in high of discussion now.
As per the clarity of the media, we are not seeking their individual bank
statement.
If the media does not make clear or if the working journalist does
not receive the payment in their bank account or in case of if the concerned
media do not send payroll then we will accept the bank statement of the
concerned person.
In case of payroll
received, the appointment letter and the letter form the respective media will
be sufficient. We also accept the bank
statement which will also match the record of the previous month that we had
received.
Press pass of those not
having bank statement has been rejected. This is not the case, the ministry has
asked for assurance of implementation and its report. For the assurance there
should be the documents to approve it. The oral agreement is not accepted even
in the court as proof. There should be the documents in written.
Regarding the claims
that the media owners have to shut down their media if they are forced to
provide the minimum wage fixed by the government, I want to make it clear that
the media which has been established without proper business plan might have
faced such problem, but not all media. The problem is inevitable if one
establishes a media without having a business plan.
In Nepal, the media are open on the basis of
whim, hobby, geography, completion and ideology without incorporating business
plans. In every business there is chance of both gain and loss. If the media
could not operate as per the need of time it will surely face the accident.
This wage is for those
who work full time and get recruitment. We have received some complaints that
big media are also appointing many people informally. This is the consequences
of not having proper planning.
We are issuing identity
cards by following the process as per the letter we received. The Ministry of
Communication and Information Technology had also monitored the process. The
Minister had also studied whether the works were per the letter.
The government has been
planning to facilitate the media houses. Law and policies are formulated
according to the demand of time and they are updated as per need. So, no law is
absolute. If the media houses say they are unable to implement the minimum
wages with good reasons, we can discuss the issue and find out solution.
The government has no
desire to shut down any media house. I had also worked as a member secretary of
the Minimum Wages fixation committee. I feel that the problems were created by
ourselves because we did not categorise the media houses and kept all houses in
the same basket without analysing their status.
New scheme of wages
The Working Journalists Act
has a provision that the journalists and other staff working in the media
institution should be governed by the act but the owners went to the court
demanding that the non-editorial staff should be governed by the Labour Act.
Gangadhar Parajuli
The mergers of the minimum wages and press freedom are
just seeking an excuse not to implement the Working Journalist Act 1995. The
MWFC had recommended increasing the salary of journalists and staff members of
media institutions in 2015.
Salary of workers in other sectors has increased
after that but wages of journalists and workers in the media houses remained
the same. Therefore, we recommended the
new scheme of wages and the government had decided to increase the salary by 25
per cent as a whole although the committee had suggested hiking it by 20 to 50
per cent according to the classification of the media houses.
Some media owners had expressed their objections over
the new salary scheme saying that the government one-sidedly took the decision.
The Working Journalists Act has a provision that the journalists and other staff
working in the media institution should be governed by the act but the owners
went to the court demanding that the non-editorial staff should be governed by
the Labour Act.
We had recommended the government to deprive the media
houses that do not implement the minimum wages provision of the government
facilities. This is not the first recommendation, we have been asking the
government to make it so from the very beginning.
Earlier governments did not
show interest in implementing the recommendation but this government has
decided to make it happen. This is not an issue to be connected with the ‘Press
Pass’. We can have alternatives of the press pass but there shouldn’t be any
excuse to give less or no salary to journalists.
All media owners are not against the new provision, a
few of them have stood against it after DoI’s circular which sent waves across
all size of media institutions and even the small media entrepreneurs started
protesting against it. In order to address their concerns, the MWFC’s meeting
last month has recommended the government that the media houses that have less
than seven employees or journalists, should be given three months preparation
time.
The new provision should be implemented in all media houses from the next
fiscal year 2019/20. Small media institutions are waiting for the government
decision about it.
The media is totally a
different from other industries. We are operating media houses in own our
interest. The media owners have been operating the media houses for long though
they often say they are in lost.
It is not good to
compare salary facilities with advertisement distribution. They are totally
different issue. So, media houses must paid minimum wages to working
journalists any they employ them.
There was the case of
non-implementation in the organisation having government’s investment. We had
inspected the Gorkhapatra and RSS. There was some problem in those government
owned organisations. Now all government media have implemented the minimum
wage.
There are no problems
in other corporate media houses of Kathmandu. Most of they have implemented it.
But those who are working outside the Kathmandu Valley as stringers are still
in problem. Media are mobilising them paying only Rs. 10,000 to 12,000 by
providing appointment letter as stringer.
Review of minimum
wages timely
There
was a type of a gentleman agreement with the media owners to hike the wage by
25 per cent, which now has been violated.
Ram Prasad Dahal
Minimum wage of
journalists was fixed in 2064, 068, 073 BS and now. This is the first time that
the minimum wage was reviewed timely. We have to review our past struggle and
the implementation of minimum wage. At that time, we have suggested to make the
wage double which the Media Society opposed. But it agreed to implement it when
the government decided to give some incentives.
This time also, they
were bargaining to get some benefit for them. They had given informal message
of implementing it if the hike in wage is 25 per cent. We wanted to increase
the salary of journalists to Rs 40,000 per month. We recommend 50 per cent hike,
but the government reduced it to 25 per cent. There was a type of a gentleman
agreement with the media owners to hike the wage by 25 per cent, which now has
been violated.
A committee has also
been formed to recommend salary of journalists on the basis of their level
which has not been made any recommendation so far. It has halted some works.
Labour and press freedom are not the same thing. The provision of submitting
payroll is not objection-worthy.
The government has sought assurance regarding
the implementation of the act. If the
government seeks some records from the organisation established as per the law,
it would not be against the press freedom.
The FNJ has not been lost
anywhere. It has given its views to the government and the department. We have exerted
pressure for the implementation of the Act. The FNJ is creating pressure for
the result. We did not feel necessary to response immediately to the objection
of the Media Society. Our decision is in written format.
We are not living
silent. We have also organising an interaction between journalists and minister
on Tuesday. We are seeking to take commitments from the minister.
Some former FNJ
presidents' personal opinion is not the official view of the FNJ. Now, the FNJ
has been exerting pressure on the media houses to implement the Working
Journalist's Act. The Minimum Wages
Fixation Committee is now monitoring it. The government should take action
against those media house, which are not implementing the Working Journalists Act
in media houses.
Meanwhile, in the
context of Press Pass, the FNJ has been demanding with the government that it should
provide entry to journalists on the basis of the press pass issued by the FNJ.
And, if the government agrees to provide validity to the FNJ-issued pass, FNJ
could filter their members.
People only having
press pass could not be journalist. Many senior journalists still don't have
press pass. And, there could be any alternate of press pass. We are discussing
this.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 8 April 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment