Images of March to Parliament on UNI issue

March to Parliament on UNI issue

UNI Workers Union

9- Rafi Marg, New Delhi- 110001

December 14, 2009 Bulletin



New Delhi. Hundreds of people owing allegiance to political parties, civil and human rights groups, trade unions as well as media organisations took out a march to parliament today and demanded of the government to announce a financial package to revive the crisis-ridden 50 years old United News of India (UNI). The march culminated into a mass meeting near Shram Shakti Bhawan on Rafi Marg. A memorandum was also submitted later at the PMO.

The mass meeting was addressed among others by Professor Bhim Singh (Panthers Party), Qamar Alam (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Amarjeet Kaur (AITUC), Rajiv Dimri (AICCTU), Bhupendra Rawat (Jan Sangharsh Vahini), Suresh Nautiyal (Uttarakhand Parivartan Party), Biju Nayak (Lok Raj Sangathan), Rajiv Kumar (NAFRE), Ajay Tyagi (PTI Employees Union), Sayyad Ahmed Iqbal (Urdu Press Club), Ashish Sinha (Save UNI Campaign), and Mohan Lal Joshi and Rajesh Kumar (UNI Workers Union).

Underscoring the significant contribution of UNI in the growth of journalism in post independence India, the speakers called upon the government to immediately announce a bailout package to regenerate the UNI financially. They expressed resentment over the fact that the government had been obliging the big corporate with hefty packages, but had been maintaining dubious silence over the fate of recession- infected UNI.

The speakers said that the UNI workers had waged a significant struggle last year to save the news agency from corporate takeover attempts and they succeeded in their endeavor. Now they are again on the streets for the survival and financial sustainability of the news agency.

Some news story on our march to parliament

UNI take to streets to demand financial package
New Delhi, Dec 14
Raising their voice for the revival of country's premier news agency, United News of India (UNI), hundreds of people today led a march to Parliament demanding
that the Government should announce a financial package for it.

Various political parties, human rights groups, trade unions and media organisations participated in the march that culminated at Shram Shakti Bhawan on Rafi Marg.
These included Panthers Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Jan Sangharsh Vahini, Uttarakhand Parivartan Party, Lok Raj Sangathan, National Alliance for Fundamental Right To Education (NAFRE) and Press Trust of India Employee Union.
The protestors called upon the Government to immediately announce a bailout package to regenerate the news agency financially.
They aired their anguish that the Government had been maintaining a silence over the fate of recession-hit UNI despite repeated pleas for a bailout package.

The Hindu Online edition
National
March in support of UNI
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Trade unions, media organisations, social activists, human rights groups and political parties in a show of solidarity marched to Parliament to demand a financial package to bail out the United News of India (UNI), the 50-year-old news agency.
The march culminated in a rally near the Shram Shakti Bhawan on Rafi Marg and was addressed by several leaders.
According to UNI Workers Union general secretary Rajesh Kumar a memorandum was later submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The speakers expressed their resentment at the failure of the government to bail out the financially hit UNI when it was doling out mindboggling amounts of money to a number of well placed industrial bodies.
They hoped that the Central government would act immediately to save the news agency.

........and some photos

Draft of Memo to PM on UNI issue after March to Parliament

U N I Workers Union

Registered Office: 9 Rafi Marg New Delhi

December 14, 2009

To

Honorable Prime Minister of India

New Delhi

Sub: Memorandum after a March to Parliament on the UNI issue on December 14, 2009

Dear Sir,

At the outset we, on behalf of nearly 850 employees of the news agency company of the United News of India- founded at behest of independent India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to serve the interest of freedom of press and democracy in the country- salute you and your Government to bail out the Information Technology Company, Satyam from one of the biggest corporate scam and giving it a new lease of life.

We also appreciate you for giving a series of stimulus and packages to various sectors of the Indian economy, including the newspaper industry, to help them tide over the adverse effects of the global economic slowdown.

We, however, regret to say that various ministries and departments of the Government has done virtually nothing to bail out our Company from the biggest media scam in independent India and devastation created due to an illegal take-over bid of this nearly 50-years old news agency by a private investment company of dubious nature –M/S Mediavest Pvt. Ltd. -- of a corporate giant. This scam was brought to your kind attention by the leaders of the CPM, Com Prakash Karat and the CPI, Com A V Bardhan in a meeting with you in your office on November 7, 2006 and also by a delegation of the Citizens for UNI and the UNI staff, led by the veteran journalist Shree Kuldip Nayar on November 9, 2006.

The UNI was floated initially as a co-operative venture of newspapers to serve primarily scores of resource starved small and medium newspapers and others, including the government agencies , as its subscribers on the basis of the financial dictum of ‘larger the-base- less -the-cost’. The UNI , which was later registered under Section 25 of the Company Act so as to run on the principle of NOT FOR PROFIT, has come out of a three-year long legal battle. It survived an obnoxious take-over bid that would have changed not only its ownership structure but also non-monopolistic and impartial character of India's only tri-lingual news agency with its services in English, Hindi and Urdu.

Sir, when India attained independence and the business of British -owned Reuters agency was handed over to the Press Trust of India (PTI) -floated by Indian newspaper owners. There was an another news agency UPI, but it collapsed in 1958 due to severe financial crunch. Pandit Nehru had a vision to anticipate danger of a monopolistic news agency in the country and thought it fit to create this second one, the UNI, for the nascent nation. The danger is real even now as India is integrating itself with the global community and a free, independent and robust second news agency alone can ensure competition in the free flow of credible news as well as to help preserve the interest of all stake holders in our democratic system.

Following the Company Law Board (CLB) verdict in early 2008 against the conspiratorial attempt of handing the UNI over to a particular media baron for a song, the sinister design got defeated. The protracted litigation over control of the UNI is now over after M/S Mediavest reached an out-of-court-settlement with four 'old guards' (promoters) of the UNI, including –the ABP Pvt. Ltd., M/S Manipal Media Network Ltd., M/S Kasturi & Sons Ltd. and The Printers (Mysore) Ltd., and withdrew its suit in Delhi High Court early this year that had challenged the CLB verdict.

However, this premiere news agency’s problems continue to persist. The workers of UNI are reeling under a salary crisis and many of them and their families are on the verge of starvation. The UNI employees are yet to get Interim Awards of Justice Kurup Wage Boards duly notified by your Government way back on October 24, 2008. For the last three years, the UNI staffs have not been paid their some statutory payments and fringe benefits including bonus, LTA, Casual Leave Encashment, etc.

The economic recession has further worsened the situation for the UNI. Although the Union government has been generous in providing bailout packages with several measures, including relief in custom duty on newsprints and by increasing the advertisement rates of the state-owned DAVP by 25 percent to private media establishments being run only with profit motive, it’s not coming forward at all to rescue the financially ruined UNI news agency, running on no- profit- no-loss basis and catering to hundreds of small and medium newspapers.

The UNI has sought from the government an interest free loan of Rs 30 crore which could prove pivotal for its survival. There is a precedence too for such loan to news agencies , as in 1992, the Union Government had extended a soft loan to the other news agency, PTI , which was then facing a financial crisis. The Union Government is also continuing to give an annual grant of about Rs 3 crore to the PTI for its contributions to a largely defunct, Non Aligned Movement News Pool. It may not be out of context to mention that the Union Government had proposed a grant of Rs 100 crore in the recent past to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, a NOT FOR PROFIT organization like the UNI.

We have also been requesting the concerned authorities to intervene in the matter of revision of Prasar Bharti’s subscription rates for both the news agencies. It has not been revised for more than last five years. Many newspapers and Government agencies, subscribing the UNI services are not clearing outstanding dues. As the current crisis in the UNI strikes at the very roots of a free press and democratic traditions of our country, we do believe and hope you to share our view that the existence of UNI is paramount for the multiplicity of sources of news to small and medium newspapers.

Sir, as the UNI is in Back-to-Future mode, it’s time now for us to take concerted steps to pull it out from almost chaotic state and make it financially viable and embark upon a multi-pronged strategy to bring in structural and functional changes in tune with the changing time.

We urge you and your government to join our endeavor to save the existence of the agency, which would have definitely succumbed to the corporate onslaught, had the media fraternity, larger civil society, Congress, Left and other political parties and of course the judiciary not saved its independence and autonomy. But now, be it the question of human resource crisis or the financial needs for agency’s expansion and modernization, appropriate pro-active intervention on the part of the Government is essential. We fear that if immediate remedial steps are not taken the news agency may fall into an abyss beyond retrieval. In this background we request you to initiate measures on the following points

1) The Government should form a working group under the Chairmanship of Shri Kuldip Nayar to draft a United News of India Act so that this news agency may be handed over to People's sector with its day-today control vested in their employees ( like the L & T, “an ideal company of the People's sector” as the Union Home Minister Shree P Chidambaram once dubbed it when he was the Union Finance minister) ) rather than being allowed to rot in the hands of private sector , not willing to do anything without booking profit or be seen as dependent on the Government for all the time to come.

We would like to point out that Kuldip Nayar Committee report submitted to the Parliament in 1977 had suggested that ' a news agency has to be guarded against the danger of being identified with or dominated by any vested interests-economic, social, communal or political or even by what is called the establishment'.

It is also a known truth that no news agency worth the name in the world has allowed a single business house or a company to own majority shares. And, Associated Press (AP) of United States of America, on the pattern of which UNI was designed by its founding fathers, has not more than two per cent shares of any company. Even it has been made mandatory in Press Trust of India (PTI) that no shareholder will be allowed to have more than ten per cent shares in the Trust.

2) Till such an act is passed by the Parliament and enforced , the Government should set up an empowered Group of Ministers(GoM) or secretaries , comprising amongst others those from Finance , Company Affairs , Law, Information & Broadcasting , Information Technology & Communication , Labour and Urban Development to help solve immediate problems facing the UNI.

3) The Union Government should give a onetime grant of Rs 25 Crore to UNI to clear statutory dues of its employees, pegged at estimated Rs 20 crore at the close of the financial year of 2009-10

4) The Union Government should give an interest-free loan assistance of Rs 30 Crore to UNI for technological up gradation , launching of its services in Arabic , Punjabi , Marathi and other Indian languages and strengthening its recently re-launched TV Service in due course. The loan may be repaid in 20 years out of the additional revenues generated from such new services and business verticals.

5) The Union Government should allot plot no 9 at Rafi Marg , New Delhi on Free Hold basis exclusively to UNI so as it may build its own building.

6) The Union Government should also request all the state government to allot suitable plots at concessional / institutional rates to UNI at the state capital on Free Hold basis.

7) The Union Government should advise the concerned authorities to make upward revision in Prasar Bharti’s subscription rates for both the news agencies by 50 per cent from retrospective effect of the year 2004.

8) The Union Finance Ministry should make special provision in the next Union Budget for exemption and or relief to all the employees of NOT FOR PROFIT Companies like UNI in income tax. Because of the very nature of such companies their employees do not get wages as per the market norm. Such a measure will go a long way to encourage employees of these section-25 companies to carry out the task mandated to them.

9) We urge you to direct the Company affairs ministry to see to it that an amendment is made in the Memorandum of Association (MoA) of the UNI, as section-25 Company, to maintain its non-monopolistic and independent character and also to ensure continuing subscription and other financial support from its promoters. A detailed note in this regard is contained in the Dossier given by us to the Company’s stake holders. A copy of that Dossier is enclosed for your kind perusal.

10) We urge the Union Government put pressure on the UNI to institute a thorough enquiry into the misdeeds of Mr Naresh Mohan, who till recently was holding the position of a member of the Board of Directors of the Company using the back door of ‘Prominent Public Figure’ category. We have enough reasons to conclude that Mr Mohan hatched a conspiracy to push UNI into red from a surplus of around Rs 27 crore, only to make a case for sale of UNI. We request you to see to it that UNI must guard against the intrusion of any unscrupulous element, like Mr Naresh Mohan into the Company Board using “Prominent Public Figure” route or any other dubious way.

11) We urge the Union Government to direct the UNI to co-opt two elected representative of the employees on its Board with voting rights. It is pertinent to point out the minutes of the first meeting- called on January 20, 1959 by Shree Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then Chief Minister of Bengal- to set up this second news agency records this desire of our founding fathers. We also urge you to ask the UNI that two independent directors be nominated on its Board from prominent public figures and one of them should be from judicial domain.

Thanking You

(Rajesh Kumar)

General Secretary, UNI Workers Union and

Convener, UNI Employees Joint Action Council (UNI-EN-JAC)

Note-1

The Present UNI Board

The current UNI Chairman is Mr Dipankar Das Purkayastha, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kolkata-headquartered Anand Bazar Patrika (ABP). He was elected as the UNI Chairman at the Company's Board of Directors meeting in New Delhi on August 20, 2009. He replaced Mr. Manoj Kumar Sonthalia who had resigned from the post of the Chairman and director of the UNI Board in October 2007- just before the Company Law Board held null and void the UNI Board's decision to sell its majority shares to Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra's private investment firm of M/S Mediavest.

The UNI Board which immediately met after the 48th Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) of the Company in August 2009, apart from electing its regular chairman also co-opted Mr T Gautam Pai of the Manipal Media Network (Udayavani) as a new director of the company. Mr Arindam Sengupta, Editor of The Times of India and Mr Prafulla Maheshwari of Hindi Daily Nav bharat (Bhopal) are other two directors on the UNI Board.

Note -2

UNI- first available page from history

(Courtesy: West Bengal Government Archives)

The United Press of India went into liquidation around Sept. 1959. The question of organising a news service to fill the void was taken up at once. A conference of newspaper people was called by Dr. B. C. Roy and Mr. S.C. Roy, former sheriff of Calcutta, to discuss the formation of a second news agency.

According to the minutes of that meeting, the meeting was held at Writers Building, Calcutta in the Chief Minister's room on Tuesday, Jan.20, 1959. The following were present

Dr. B.C. Roy (Chief Minister, W.B.)

Mr. Tushar Kanti Ghosh,

Mr. Asoke Sarkar,

Mr. Upendra Acharya,

Mr. S. P. Jain and Mr. P. Subramanian (representing Times of India),

Mr. G.E. Powell (Statesman) and. Mr. S. C Roy

Mr. K. Srinivasan and Mr. K.K. Birla had sent word that they would cooperate in the venture.

Dr. B.C. Roy opened the meeting explaining the background in respect of the conference.

After a general discussion, the following decisions were taken:

- It is desirable to start a second news agency in the void created by the closure of UPI

- A Joint Stock Company (Public Limited) should be registered for this purpose

-The name of the Company should be "Indian News Service" or "Indian News Agency" or "India News Trust"-whichever name is available

-There should be provision in the Memorandum of Association of the Company that the organisation may later on be converted into a Trust".

According to the minutes, provision was made also for "two prominent public men elected by the shareholders" on the Board and one representative of the employees. It further said,

For the purpose of starting, the Board should consist of the following persons:

Bombay region 1 Mr. Shanti Prasad Jain (or his nominee)

2 another representative of newspapers from Bombay

Calcutta 3 Mr. Tushar Kanti Ghosh

4 Mr. Upendra Acharya (Indian Nation, Patna)

Delhi 5 Mr. G .A. Johnson (or his nominee from the "Statesman"

6 Mr. K.C. Sarda of Hindustan Times

Madras 7 Mr. K. Srinivasan (Hindu)

8 Mr. Ramnath Goenka (or some other person from Madras)

Public Men 9 Mr. G.L. Mehta, and,

10 Mr. S.C. Roy

The last two paragraphs of the minutes said:

“The draft Memorandum of Articles of Association which had been circulated previously are, to be amended in the light of decision taken and a further meeting of the newspapers should be called for finalizing the matter.

It was also decided that these decisions should be placed before Dr. B. V. Keskar, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India for his approval"

Hunger Strike with BLACK BADGES on December 14, 2009

At all the UNI centers outside Delhi
to coincide with
March to Parliament on the UNI issue

New Delhi 10 December, 2009

On behalf of the National Joint Action Council of the UNI Employees(UNI-EN-JAC) and its largest constituents, the UNI Workers Union,Delhi, we appeal to the UNI Employees across the country to observe Hunger Strike during office Hours from 9 am to 5 pm on Monday,December 14, 2009 to coincide with the March to Parliament on the UNIissue the same day.

The UNI Employees Union, Mumbai has already decided to observe Hunger Strike, by keeping fast with BLACK BADGES while on work, on that dayand all other state unions are requested to take similar decision. Thestate unions may also handover a memorandum on the UNI issue to their respective Chief Ministers, a draft of which is being sent from ourend separately.
The UNI employees at other centres, where there is no union atpresent, may also keep fast on that to express our rock like unity andsupport to the cause for which the March to Parliament is being
As you may be aware that several other trade unions, including theBrihanmumbai Union of Journalists(BUJ) and organisations like FIANIndia ( a Human Rights Organization for Right to Food) and eminentcitizens of various sections of the society have supported our call tojoin the March to Parliament on the UNI issue.

This march will markthe culmination of the protest programme against the Companymanagement’s failure to address the issues raised by the UNI WorkersUnion, Delhi at gate meetings and Dharna at the Company Head Office inNew Delhi from November, 2009.The issues raised in the 12-pointCHARTER OF DEMANDS, duly submitted the Company management on October29, 2009, include disbursement of salary to the staff on time andwritten details of dues of all the employees with a firm time framefor its payment.

Rajesh Kumar
General Secretary.
UNI Workers Union, Delhi
&
National Joint Action Council of UNI Employees (UNI-EN-JAC), New Delhi

Mumbai Calling - UNI in and out of Parliament

So it is clear that the UNI local management has no 'concrete' action plan to revive the Company. This is what the Government meant by what it said in the Rajya Sabha on December 7- six days before the UNI employees are to take out a March to Parliament to press for their demands.

How is that the management asked for a soft loan from the Government without submitting concrete proposal regarding its use and repayment? Can it say that the Government's statement in Parliament is not correct? If no, who is going to be held responsible for this serious lapse?

Now it is for the UNI employees themselves to do all what is necessary to revive this news agency without further delay. There is no manager except the General Manager and no Editor except the Chief Editor left at the UNI head office in New Delhi. And the one who is holding both the post now stands exposed in his ' vision ' and capabilities to take us further.

We are making this charge with full responsibility in the light of the fact that the UNI is suffering loss of a rental revenue of close to Rs 1.25 lakh every month from our building in Bhopal as there was no MANAGER at all for one full year. This lapse on the part of our management helped one of the so-called franchises of a promoter of our own Company - Dainik Jagran to 'capture' an entire floor of that building in Bhopal.

We raised the issue at our lunch-hour gate meeting in Delhi on November 16, 2009 and the same evening a manager was appointed in Bhopal, who we also regard a good journalist , but he is junior to almost all other journalist working there.

We now suggest our Union leaders to prepare a document with the help of a Chartered Accountant to substantiate the need for such a loan from the Government and submit that for consideration of the UNI Board that is likely to meet on December 17, 2009. We must tell the Government that the UNI needs this assistance to clear arrears of the employees, currently pegged at Rs 17 Crore and up gradation of its technology.

We know there is no chartered accountant in UNI and this could be another reason why the UNI request for soft loan from the Government lacked required concrete proposals. We are told when the Government asked the UNI management to explain the rationale for giving such a loan; it simply said that the loan is required to build a building at Rafi Marg in New Delhi- a government plot. We all know that government does not give loan to make a building that too on a plot owned by the State.

It is business of banks to give loans to build any building and for that a ' bankable' project has to be submitted with certain collaterals. The only bankable property the UNI owns at the present is a modest flat worth about Rs two crore in a posh locality in Mumbai, which is not sufficient even to draw from our bank an overdraft of the amount equal to one fourth of our monthly expenditure.

We place two news items on the record which came from the Parliament on December 8, 2009 and thank Honorable member of Rajya Sabha, Ali Anwar Ansari who raised the UNI issue in the House, the second time after he had raised the issue of victimization of the UNI employees - suspensions and transfers - in November 2006.

Govt seeks 'concrete proposal' for UNI revival plan

New Delhi, Dec 7
The Government has asked United News of India (UNI), the national news agency to submit a 'concrete proposal' detailing the repayment plan and the issue of security for its Rs 20 crore interests free loan proposal, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Answering question of Mr Ali Anwar Ansari, Janata Dal (United) Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting C M Jatua in his written answer said UNI was a media company under the Companies Act, 1956 and the Government had no control over its affairs, which were all controlled by its shareholders through their representatives on the Board of Directors.

The company had requested for Rs 20 crore interest free loan and the government required justification for the loan. The financial status of the company, reasons for present financial crisis, concrete plans to revive the agency, repayment plan and issue of security were required to be provided by the agency.

He said the Government had given an interest free loan of Rs 1.75 crore to the Press Trust of India, the another news agency, in 1996 to make initial contribution towards establishing Asia-Pacific Consortium of News Agencies.

Earlier in the day, Mr Ansari also raised the issue pleading to accept UNI's request for soft loan for constructing its building on its plot on No 9, Rafi Marg. Such a loan would help 800 journalists and non-journalists working in the wire services agency throughout the country to get their wages on time.

JD (U) MP makes plea for helping UNI with soft loan

New Delhi, Dec 7
A plea for a soft loan to United News of India (UNI) to help the news agency tide over its financial difficulties was raised in the Rajya Sabha today by JD (U) MP, Ali Anwar.

Raising the matter in the House during zero hour, Mr Anwar said the premier national news agency started at the behest of the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was a non-profit organisation supplying news to the newspapers, government agencies and others across the country.

Mr Anwar pointed out that the Government had helped another national agency with a Rs 10 crore grant when it was in difficulties. He said a soft loan would help the agency to proceed with a building project in its land on Rafi Marg to help improve its finances

March to Parliament on the UNI issue on December 14

UNI WORKERS’ UNION
9, RAFI MARG, New Delhi -110001


AN APPEAL TO THE MEDIA PERSONS & SUPPORTERS OF THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IN INDIA

Please come and join March to Parliament on 14 December 2009, assemble at UNI , 9 Rafi Marg , New Delhi at 10 AM.

Dear colleagues and comrades,

The UNI Workers Union is organising a March to Parliament on Monday, December 14, 2009 to highlight the plight of 800-odd employees of United News of India, the news agency which has just survived a illegal and obnoxious take-over bid of a corporate giant.

The deal would have changed the ownership structure and neutral character of the news agency, hitherto a co-operative of newspapers, and turned it into a private shop.

Following the Company Law Board’s verdict against the conspiratorial attempt of handing the UNI over to the media baron, the sinister design got defeated. However, this premiere news agency’s problems continue to persist. For last two years, the workers of UNI are reeling under a salary crisis. For last three years, they have not been paid their fringe benefits including bonus, LTA, Casual Leave Encashment, etc and they have yet to get Interim Awards of Justice Kurup Wage Boardsduly notified by the Central Government way back on January 24, 2008. Be it the question of human resource crisis or the financial needs for agency’s expansion and modernisation, appropriate government intervention is essential. We are convinced that if remedial steps are not taken immediately, the news agency may fall into an abyss beyond retrieval.

The economic recession has further worsened the situation for the UNI. Although the Union government has been generous in providing bailout packages to profit making private media establishments by increasing the DAVP rates by 25 percent, its not coming forward to rescue the finance starved news agency, running on no profit no loss basis and catering to small and medium newspapers. We demand a relief package from the Govt. to cope up section 25 company’s current crisis.

Dear comerades, The UNI has sought from the government a soft loan of Rs 30 crore which could prove pivotal for its survival and there is a precedence too. There is a precidence too. In 1992, the union government had extended soft loan of Rs 10 crore to the other news agency, Press Trust of India (PTI), which was then facing a financial crisis. We have also been requesting the national leadership to intervene in the matter of revision of Prasar Bharti’s subscription rates for both the news agencies. It has not been revised for more than last five years.

We would appreciate your participation as well as those of your members in the march as the current crisis strikes at the very roots of a free press and democratic traditions of the country as the existance of UNI is paramount for the multiplicity of sources of news to small and medium newspapers. Sir, the other news agency—Press Trust of India (PTI) was there, when UPI collapsed in 1958 due to severe financial crunch and anticepating a danger of monopolistic behaviour, our first Prime Minister thought it fit to create this second one for the nascent nation. The danger is real even now. Moreover, as India integrates itself with the global community, a free, independent and robust second news agency alone can ensure competition in the flow of news as well as help preserve the sovereignty of the nation and focus on the interest of all stake holders in a democracy.

Sir, the UNI workers Union would like you to come and join our endeavour to save the existance of the agency, which would have definitely succumbed to the corporate onslaught, had you all not joined the first phase of our agitation to save its independence and autonomy. The marchers would assemble at lawns of UNI (9, Rafi Marg, New Delhi-110001) at 1000 AM and proceed towards Parliament House at 1200 hrs. Several prominent media personalities have already extended their support to our struggle.

Regards,


(Rajesh Kumar)
General Secretary

UNI TV -hypes and hopes

Mumbai Calling of November 30, 2009

The day our five leaders held an exhaustive meeting with the UNI Chairman, Shree D D

Purkayastha in New Delhi on November 24, 2006, just before the Company Board met to

give a green signal to "re-launching" of the UNI TV in its new avatar in a tie up with YRD

Communication, we had made a posting on this blog, entitled" Give a chance to them to

Re-launch UNI TV with a BIG BUT.

After the UNI TV was relaunched by Honorable Lok Sabha Speaker, Meera Kumar in

a 'grand evening function' at 9 Rafi Marg in New Delhi on November 28, 2009, we received

several calls from across the country and abroad also asking many questions about this

Venture. We are in no position to answer most of those questions -half of them raised with

hype and others with cynical or skeptical overtones.

A former UNI journalist, now a senior editor with leading news weekly rang up early

morning and said “We feared that the UNI is dying, is it the last wish of a great organization

or the first real sign of hope for its revival". “Jai Hind Sir “, we said, adding that the world

should wait a while to say anything conclusively about our fate.

He was apparently not satisfied with the details about this venture, procured from his own

sources, but seemed to be convinced to a great extent with our logic to support the venture in

order to stay alive. “Wish you all, good luck”, he concluded.

Wife of a former UNI journalist, now settled in the United States, wanted to know how

she can watch UNI TV. We asked, “How did you come to know about it ". She said, “Wife

of a serving UNI journalist told us on the face book, she was exited, so are we, the world is

small but too big to care for all of us together ".” The world is flat “, we said and reminding

her the title of a book by an American author clarified that it’s not yet a new TV channel but

just a brand name of an electronic service and may take some time to fructify.

We really do not know much about this venture. But the UNI Chairman has told our

leaders categorically that it has nothing to do with Z TV. He also said that the UNI will

Control its editorial content and it has nothing to lose but to gain substantially in due course

of time. OK, we have not much reason or option not to believe him and keep a constant vigil

over the new venture and aspire to run it on your own at the earliest.

Why we need to keep its editorial control with ? Because we know that the man behind the YRD Communication, while doing some 'Computerized' analysis of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for the UNI in its Luclnow office in 1993, did not know that all the SINGHS are nor THAKURS and Kalyan Singh was certainly not a leader from upper caste as he sought to analyze by concluding that THAKURS outnumbered all others among the newly elected MLAs. We, in UNI, had to spiked his analysis ,done with finding out caste of MLAs by totaling numbers of a surname.

Well, Mr YRD, we hope you have matured and by now must have come to know the basics of the Indian Society and economy. Anyway, you do not have any option other than to agree with us that a computer output, without served with human intellect, is nothing but ' garbage in, garbage out '.

Meanwhile , we reproduce a copy of PTI report on UNI TV , published in the Business Standard

UNI launches television service
Press Trust Of India / New Delhi November 29, 2009, 0:38 IST

News service provider United News of India (UNI) today launched its television service in partnership with a private firm, YRD Media.

Named UNI Television, the new venture from the newswire will not only provide news clippings but also offer back-end support to regional channels looking for news coverage in metros and other bigger cities.

The service was a launched by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar at a function attended by various political leaders, including Ajit Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Sharad Yadav.

“Since all channels in India cannot have studios, OB vans and required personnel in big cities, we will be providing these support to those regional channels which want direct news coverage from those places," YRD Media Managing Director Yashwant Deshmukh said.

To start with, the service will be available in Delhi and will be rolled out in other metros, followed by smaller cities, he added. Deshmukh, however, declined to comment on the nature of partnership, revenue sharing model with UNI and the investments for the project.