On May Day, DUJ-NAJ Flag ‘Threat’ to Independent Journalism in India

New Delhi: As the working people across the world celebrate May Day on Wednesday, the DUJ and NAJ have pointed out its “special significance” in India, where freedom of expression and the rights and dignity of independent journalism are being “threatened as never before.”

In a joint statement issued on International Labour Day, the National Alliance of Journalists (NAJ) and the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), while greeting all its members and co-workers, pointed out that May Day was when “workers first became conscious of their rights and dignity and fought for them.”

 Amid campaigning for the ongoing general elections in the country, the NAJ and DUJ also welcomed the promises made by some political parties in their election manifestos for redressal of the problems of the media.

“The Congress Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have devoted sections of their manifestos to Media and both have agreed e.g. to withdraw the dangerous Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023 and review the Press and Periodicals Act, 2023, besides reviewing other laws that are meant to censor the Media. Both parties also promise to enact laws to protect journalists from arbitrary arrests and malicious prosecution. Further, they promise action to curb cross-media ownership monopolies,” it noted.

 The journalists’ bodies also noted that the CPI(M) and the Communist Party of India had also promised to restore the Working Journalist Acts with amendments to include all media workers, as also action against fake news.

However, the NAJ-DUJ said they regretted that most other political parties had “not cared to pay even lip service to the cause of independent and free media.”

 Both the organisations also protested the threat to basic labour rights from the four Labour Codes that seek to replace decades of hard-won legal rights enshrined in law.

“The Codes will replace the two Working Journalists Acts and make hiring and firing easier at a time when unemployment is rife and the livelihood of many journalists is at stake,” the statement read, demanding that the  Working Journalists' Acts be restored, the contract system be stopped and a new Wage Board be constituted.

They also demanded special protection from arrests and an end to arbitrary prosecution of journalists.

 Ahead of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, the DUJ, which is observing its 75th foundation year, also gave a call to "Save Independent Journalism in India Today”, and condemned all attempts at “spewing hate speech and whipping up communalism in a country that prided itself in its secular democratic character.”