It isn’t every day that journalists aren’t covering a protest, but are leading a protest. A group of journalists organised a protest march on August 21, 2013 in Film City, Noida under the banner of ‘Journalism Solidarity Forum’ (JSF) or ‘Patrakar Ekjuta Manch’. The protest march saw the participation of journalists from different media organisations, All Indian Student Federation, JNU student Union. They were protesting the sacking of over 300 employees by Network 18’s different news channels –CNBC, IBN 7 and CNN IBN. The loosely formed organisation has made some ripples on Twitter and facebook with provocative slogans like “Ambani ke dalalo sharam karo” (Brokers of Ambani, shame on you) and “Punjipatyon ki patrakarita band karo” (End this journalism which favours capitalists). While the protest began only with a handful of people, as the day progressed more people joined in despite the scorching sun.

The protesters were from websites such as Media Darbar and www.bhadas4media.com, Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan, Nav Bharat Times and other media organisations. While the pictures of this agitation were being circulated online and touted as a fight by IBN 7 employees against their sudden sacking, on-ground no one from IBN participated in the protest. Even when we spotted a couple of IBN 7 employees in the crowd, they disappeared once the cameras started rolling. It is strange that even after losing jobs, they are still too scared of coming out in the open.

The major demand of the protesters is the reinstatement of all the employees of Network 18 who have been sacked. Yashwant Singh, Editor of media-watch website www.bhadaas4media.com , who has been at the forefront of the protests, explains why employees of IBN desisted from participating in the protests.

The protest was also used as an opportunity to highlight the plight of many journalists working in other organsiations who were asked to resign arbitrarily, but who decided to put up a fight against their management. According to Jitender Kumar, former Associate Editor of Dainik Bhaskar, he lost his job because he wasn’t compliant enough for the management. However, instead of quietly resigning he went to the Labour Court to fight for his rights. But none of Network 18’s employees seem to be standing up against their management. Protesters, however, claimed that CNN IBN and IBN 7 employees are in constant touch with them through facebook, Twitter and smses. Blame is being apportioned to Mukesh Ambani, who made a substantial investment in Network 18 through Independent Media Trust.

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) which was not present at the protest site but had extended support to the protest  spelled out the reasons for why Ambani was being held responsible for the mass sacking in their press release. The press release stated, “Following the travails of the global financial meltdown, the main Network 18 promoter, Raghav Bahl, secured early in 2012, a personal loan of INR 40 billion from India’s largest corporate enterprise, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), for cutting some of his company’s debt and funding a merger with Eenadu Television (ETV), a major multi-lingual broadcaster based in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. It was widely believed then, that this would be precursor to an aggressive move by Network 18 into the convergence space, since RIL, headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, shortly afterwards signed a deal with Reliance Infocomm, headed by his brother Anil Ambani, to carry media content over the 120,000 kilometre long fibre-optic network controlled by the latter. RIL had a subsidiary called Reliance Jio in place for implementing its ambitions in telecom, but in June 2013, put plans to launch “fourth-generation” (or 4G) telecom services on hold. The premium placed on Network 18 media content diminished rapidly after this decision.”

At the protests, those assembled were questioning the shareholding patterns in media houses and the nexus between management and senior editors to keep up profits with total disregard to the future employment of their teams.

Apart from the demand to reinstate all the sacked employees, JSF is also working towards reviving the formation of journalist unions in media houses. The forum feels that unions work as a deterrent for managements against arbitrary sackings.

However, they are not clear about how they are going to do so. Most organisations hire employees on contract, which immediately stops them from forming union. And it’s not just the contractual compulsions of media professionals which deter them from forming unions.Journalist unions which are already in existence are either of little help or not taken seriously. Speaking to Newslaundry, President of Union of Journalism, Laxman Uppalla spoke of the futility of forming unions. He said, “I don’t think that forming unions helps the cause of the journalists in any way because every time when these type of incidents happen every media organisation forms a union but after some time the union becomes handicap due to paucity of manpower, funds and other facilities”.

Upalla says that what journalists need is not unions but better legal safeguards to fight such adversities. According to him, “nowadays every management is doing the same thing for all media workers. Earlier NUJ had demanded on several occasions to the Union government to amend labour laws, the Working Journalists Act and Industrial Dispute Act. We have passed a resolution in our Biennial session to enact Journalist Protection Act”.

Apart from legal safeguards, a need for revising the nature of journalism as a profession was also stated by the protesters. The sackings in several media organsations and the widespread gloom in the media industry have also raised questions on the nature of the medium and the profession. Is writing, reporting or producing news any different from manufacturing goods in a factory? Tapish who is involved with the publication of workers’ journal Bigul Mazdoor Dasta raised these points.

While the poetic and charged deliberations of this young media professional about the fight between the capitalists and the labour forces can only be praised, the sad reality is that his compatriots are not all that enthused.  What is worse is that even while protesting or fighting for their rights, journalists failed to unite. Only a handful of people from the English media were present, out of whom we recognised Suresh Nautiyal. All the claims about ending elitism among journalists fell flat there. Similarly, it was because of the enthusiastic participation of professionals from the alternate media organisations like Media Darbar and little known regional publications like Telugu Daily that the protest got some kind of traction. The mainstream media didn’t even report on the protest. The initiative by Journalist Solidarity Forum in getting across the voices of those at Network 18 who have got a raw deal is commendable, but the lack of cohesiveness and unity amongst media professionals often makes these forums ineffectual and merely one-off shows of solidarity.

Note: A clip with one protester hurling an unsubstantiated personal accusation at Rajdeep Sardesai was carried in an earlier version of this article. It has since been removed. Newslaundry extends Rajdeep an apology.