A group of journalists, apparently those who were sacked from their jobs from two major Telugu dailies Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy, on Friday wrote an open letter to Eenadu group chairman Ch Ramoji Rao and Andhra Jyothy managing director Vemuri Radhakrishna, exposing their double standards in journalism.
The open letter started with thanking both the media barons for providing job opportunities to many journalists and taking care of them all these years.
While admitting that the Coronavirus situation had caused irreparable loss to many industries and businesses, the journalists said they won’t believe if the situation had completely eroded the financial roots of Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy in a span of just 21 days.
“We strongly believe that the lockdown was just an excuse for you to sack the employees from your oorganisations,” they alleged.
They said both Ramoji Rao and RK were aware of the difficulties in the lives of employees working in newspapers, right form paper boy to stringers, reporters and sub-editors.
No other promoters of the media organisations were aware of these issues because they had no journalism background.
“So, we thought both of you have a better understanding about journalists’ plight than anybody else,” they said.
Taking a dig at Radha Krishna, the journalists said he always projected himself as a social reformer on the lines of Gurajada Appa Rao and Kandukuri Veereshlingam and a humanist like Mother Teresa.
“But nobody expected that he would impose a lockdown on the lives of journalists and smoothly cut their throats. When he expressed concern of salary cuts in Sakshi newspaper, nobody thought Radhakrishna would go a step ahead and thrown his own employees on the roads,” the journalists said.
Turning their ire at Ramoji Rao, they said the Eenadu chairman had been sending several employees on “long leave” and force them to quit the organisation on their own.
“While journalists are suffering for keeping faith on the profession, Ramoji Rao and RK had gained a lot by selling the profession,” they regretted.
The journalists reminded that Ramoji Rao had gained national recognition and was awarded Padma Bhushan only because he has a big paper in his hand.
“That is the reason why top leaders like Chandrababu Naidu, Amit Shah, L K Advani and others had respected him. Whatever credit Ramoji Rao has got now is only because of the efforts of journalists who worked in his paper,” they pointed out.
The journalists reminded that they had defended Radha Krishna when the Jagan government brought a draconian order to curtail the media.
“What should we say now, when he hit us below our belts? Why is not Chandrababu Naidu opening his mouth now?” they asked.
They warned that if Sakshi also follows the same path of sacking employees and cutting down the salaries of the journalists, it would be an unfortunate scenario in the media.
“Even Sakshi employees haven’t got any benefit after Jagan came to power. Now, if they are also sacked or given salary cuts, it will be a big blot on his image. We hope Jagan will not take such a cruel decision,” they said.
