Press Body Sends Letter To Media Houses On Newsroom Pressure Of Journalists
Mumbai Press Club, a member of the press council of India and a platform to serve the interest of the journalists, today raised the issue of work pressure faced by journalists in newsrooms, and said that the “deeply concerning trend is impacting the news industry.”
In an open letter to the editors and media houses of the country, the platform highlighted the newsroom harassment, noting the pressure put upon the journalist to generate exclusive and breaking stories.
Journalists generally work in a fast-paced news environment with tight deadlines to deliver stories to the consumers at the earliest. The competitive run of the media houses to break stories and deliver exclusives is affecting the professional and personal lives of journalists. With the digital transformation, the pressure has only aggravated.
The letter however, said that journalists including photographers under pressure to deliver stories sometimes face abuses that lead to stress and anxiety during their work. Pointing out to recent collapse and death of a senior reporter in Mumbai, it said that the pressure newsroom atmosphere ends up in serious consequences.
Admitting the mandate of the editors to ensure that the readers are being delivered the news as it happens, the letter cautioned against hurling abuse and instilling fear for the fast news delivery. “We have been seeing a stream of unethical practice in the newsroom,” the letter noted talking about an example of an editor of a news channel asking a journalist to create a ruckus during the press conference of a Congress politician.
“These practices not only undermine the health and well-being of our journalists but also compromise the quality and integrity of the news we deliver,” it added.
Noting the change and the crises that the media industry is going through, the letter noted that the journalists are forced with workload in the absence of adequate staff and logistical support. The letter further held the bureau chief and editors for being complicit for not caring about the situation.
AN OPEN LETTER TO EDITORS AND MEDIA HOUSES pic.twitter.com/FJtlNynqW7
— Mumbai Press Club (@mumbaipressclub) March 1, 2024
