New Delhi: Majority of the journalists who were laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic were forced to resign or opt for voluntary retirements and terminated from their positions by their news organisations, according to a report by the Press Council of India (PCI) to study the impact of retrenchment of journalists during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report titled “Report on retrenchment of journalists by media groups during the Covid-19 period” was prepared after a total of 51 journalists from 17 news organisations across English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali languages and 12 journalist unions and associations deposed before the committee formed in September 2023.
The report states that 80 per cent of the journalists who appeared before the committee said that they were forced to resign, opt for voluntary retirements and terminated from their positions. Only 37 per cent said that they had received severance pay.
The report states that independent estimates by former PCI member Balwinder Singh Jammu and independent journalist Cyril Sam had found retrenchments to be around 2,300-2,500. However, the actual figures are likely to be higher as their data is restricted largely to the English language media.
Nearly 80 per cent of those who deposed were from three major publishers – 19 from Bennett Coleman & co. Ltd, 14 from HT Media and 8 from The Hindu Publishing Group. Journalists from English-language news media based in New Delhi and Mumbai represent a bulk of those who deposed before the committee.
The report, prepared on the basis of physical depositions and online submissions, was adopted by the PCI on August 5. The sub-committee that was set up in September 2023 included Gurbir Singh, Prajnanda Chowdhury, P. Sainath, Snehashis Sur, L.C. Gupta and Cyril Sam.
‘Forced to resign’
The report states that only 25 per cent of the journalists who deposed before the committee said that they received formal emails from their companies about retrenchments. In nearly 75 per cent cases, all communications regarding retrenchments were oral. At the physical hearings, 80 per cent journalists claimed they were ‘forced to resign’ and didn’t receive any advance notice or formal communication about salary cuts and retrenchments.
Kavitha Iyer, currently working as an independent journalist, was retrenched from The Indian Express’ Mumbai bureau on July 27, 2020 after spending 18 years at the publication. The report cites an email to her colleagues that was published in 2020 with Iyer’s permission by Cyril Sam as part of his research into retrenchments by news media organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iyer said she was informed at a meeting – at which she was asked to leave her phone outside – that she would “have to resign” and accept the relieving letter or be terminated.
Iyer wrote in her email that had she been informed even a few days in advance, “explaining that the inevitable is about to happen, that this is a business decision with no bearing on the work I do, I would have still been unhappy to exit, but would have retained my pride in this organisation and its commitment to humanity. Sadly, we are all now a little less human and a little more virus.”
The report said that nearly all the journalists who deposed before the committee in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata narrated a similar experience.
In an open letter on LinkedIn to news organisations on August 3, 2020 Ashish Rukhaiyar, who was laid off from The Hindu in June that year said that reporters were sacked on the phone, and some called to the office and asked to submit their resignations on the spot.
“They were threatened that if they do not resign, they would lose out on payouts they are entitled to under law. There was absolutely no method in this madness. No memos, no performance related warnings, no red flags in appraisals, etc,” the letter is quoted as saying in the report.
Among those who deposed before the committee, 44 or 80 per cent reported that they were impacted financially. In addition, another 34 said that they had to dip into family savings, 17 were forced to take loans, and 12 journalists were forced to relocate.
Deepak Turbhekar, a photographer employed by the Bennett, Coleman Co’s Mumbai Mirror, was asked to resign in January 2021 by the HR over a WhatsApp call broke down before the sub-committee and said that while he was threatened with a termination if he did not resign, he was paid only one month’s salary after having worked at the organisation for 16 years.
Subsequently he had to use his Provident Fund savings to repay his home loan in Mumbai and even sell his wife’s jewellery to support his elder daughter’s education.
“I don’t have money to buy equipment for photography and am no longer doing news photography as it isn’t sustainable. Freelance news photographers are paid between Rs100-125 per photo. I see no hope for the future,” he said to the subcommittee.
While only a few resisted being forced to resign, they were eventually terminated.
Shruti Ganpatye, who worked at the Mumbai Mirror, said to the sub-committee that she was one of three people who resisted the organisation’s attempts to make them forcibly resign, out of a total of about 100 journalists who were asked to resign by the organisation.
“Only basic salary for the last two months was offered as retrenchment compensation.
“Only 3 persons including me, of an estimated 100 employees who lost their jobs in the Mumbai Mirror, refused to resign and were eventually terminated. I wrote emails asking for more compensation, however, there was no response from the company,” she is quoted as saying to the panel.
Apart from financial struggles, journalists also said to the panel that their mental health suffered due to the retrenchments.
“The retrenchments emotionally affected 40 (80%) journalists who deposed before the committee. Retrenchments also impacted the self-worth and the confidence of 40 (80%) journalists. Depression was reported by 30 (60%) journalists and 27 (54%) experienced social withdrawal. Senior journalists, in particular, were emotionally most affected. This was also witnessed in physical hearings where many senior journalists experienced emotional turmoil and were moved to tears,” the report said.
‘If scribes have no job security, freedom of press is compromised’
The report states that while journalists were worked on the frontlines during the pandemic, and were categorised as essential workers by the Union government, it did not stop media companies and organisations from retrenching journalists.
“The reasoning for including the news media in the ‘essential workers’ category was a recognition that the circulation of news and information is especially very important during a crisis period when people are struggling to cope with the changing pandemic situation on a daily basis, and when rumour mills in the unofficial channels of information are clouding people’s understanding. However, we have to record that this ‘essential workers’ directive was ignored by most of the media companies, and they showed scant respect to the Union government’s directive, firing and retrenching journalists at will,” the report stated.
According to data collated by the Network of Women in Media, India, 626 journalists from India died on the line of duty during the period, as the COVID-19 infection affected newsrooms and journalists.
In its recommendations, the report stated that if journalists do not have job security then at that very juncture, freedom of press is compromised.
“The poor job security for journalists made them particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 period where some managements appeared to use the pandemic financial crisis as an excuse to downsize employment levels much beyond what could be justified by their financial requirements,” the report said.
In this regard, the panel has in its recommendations, urged the union ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Law and Justice to introduce a Model Contract for journalists with “certain mandatory clauses which may inter alia include minimum tenure of service – 7-10 years –, provision of giving PF, Gratuity, ESI in applicable cases, provision for leave, yearly increment in salary etc.”
It has also recommended that journalists be provided with insurance against events such as natural disasters or global pandemics, fast track pending labour disputes, easy access to compensation and benefits which has been deprived to those journalists who are not “accredited” with the government and steps to protect journalists’ mental health.
The panel has noted that while the decline in the reach and financial conditions of the print media has thrown up its own challenges, there is a need for the Union government to continue the mapping of journalist retrenchments annually.
“As we have seen an unnaturally high level of job losses has an adverse impact on the quality of our information ecosystem and freedom of expression; and regular monitoring will help us deal with the problem more effectively,” it said.
