Ashish Bagga, President, Indian Newspaper Society (INS), has expressed grave apprehension that the decision of the Union Cabinet on the eve of Diwali to accept the recommendations of Majithia Wage Board may lead to the closure of a majority of small and medium newspaper publications across the country as the proposed wage hikes are very high and beyond the capacity of the industry.

He cautioned that even large publications would find it difficult to implement these steep wage hikes. It is indeed unfortunate that the INS' request for re-examination of the flawed and one-sided report has not been considered by the Government. A number of petitions challenging the Working Journalist and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1955 and the Majithia Wage Board recommendations are before the Supreme Court and the decision of the Government would be subject to the final order of the Court. After the recommendations are published, these petitions may be amended if required, he added.

Bagga said that the Fourth Estate of our vibrant democracy is under threat of losing its well-nurtured fabric of plurality of ownership and the situation created by the Government's decision will throw up a clear and imminent possibility of consolidating media power in the hands of a few. This, coupled with the danger of large scale retrenchments as a consequence of possible closure of a large number of newspaper establishments throughout the country, not only pose a great threat to the Fourth Estate but could also lead to colossal job losses in a job-scarce country such as ours, he added according to V. Shankaran, Secretary General of INS.