The Hindu : INS campaign against FDI in print media to continue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 28, 2002

National

National

INS campaign against FDI in print media to continue

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE SEPT. 27. The President of the Indian Newspaper Society, Pratap G. Pawar, has said that INS would persist with its campaign for the reversal of the NDA Government's decision to allow foreign direct investment in the print media.

Addressing the 63rd annual general meeting of the Society, Mr. Pawar said that newspapers had now been presented with a fait accompli. "We have to work for a reversal of the decision if we can and, in the meanwhile, brace ourselves to face the challenge of foreign competition''. Ignoring the opposition to allowing FDI, the Government went ahead and announced the decision to allow it in the print media, though subject to certain restrictions which could easily be circumvented.

There was no gainsaying the fact that the stand of the INS on any issue was the stand adopted by a majority of its member publications, should a consensus elude in any given situation. He urged the Centre to act on the recommendation of the Second National Commission on Labour headed by Ravindra Varma and stop constituting new wage boards for the newspaper industry. There was no rationale for singling out the newspaper industry for the determination of wages and allowances of employees through statutory wage boards. While they sympathised with the employees' demand for fair wages, it had to be based on the industry's capacity to pay, decided bilaterally between employers and employees.

Speaking of advertisement revenue, Mr. Pawar said their annual review showed a decline in the case of the Society's members from Rs.4, 419 crores during 2000 to Rs. 3,768 crores last year. It was because of the sluggish economy and the diversion of advertisements to the electronic media.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National