All India Working News Cameramen’s Association (WNCA) has strongly condemned the repealing of the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Working conditions and Miscellaneous Provisions) 1955 and Working Journalists (Fixing of rates Wages) Act 1958 and subsuming them into the Labour Code Bills, one on service conditions and other on wages, introduced recently in the Parliament.
To keep the view forward strongly, WNCA President SN Sinha called upon the working journalists to oppose the repealing of the Working Journalists Act and the Working Journalists Wage Boards Act and join the Protest Actions of Central Trade Union organisations on 2 August, Friday to send a strong signal to the government that the journalists would fight along with other sections of working class to protect their interests.
According to a statement issued on Wednesday, WNCA president S N Sinha said the government was trying to suppress press freedom in the country by repealing two legislations that protect journalism.
The government sought to equate ‘fourth estate’ with any other industry and has brazenly favoured the corporate media barons who have persistently been demanding to abolish the Wage Board and do away with the Working Journalists Act.
“Any attempts to undermine the functioning of the ‘fourth estate’ must be fought tooth and nail as it would have adverse effect on the democratic polity and strike at the very root of democracy as the freedom of press is of paramount importance,” he said.
(UNI)
