Guwahati: Journalists’ Forum of Assam (JFA) today expressed grave concern at the shut down of a Guwahati-based satellite news channel ‘Prime News’ by its management, leaving more than 170 employees, including journalists, jobless.
Extending supports to various protest demonstrations organized by the Electronic Media Forum of Assam (EMFA) against the closure notice of the satellite news channel, the JFA has urged Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to intervene in the matter for the benefit of the affected employees of Prime News.
The employees of the private news channel, lately run by the Suresh Prithani – owned Brahmaputra Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, had informed that the news channel was shut down on October 1 citing the reason of huge financial crisis.
The management apprised the employees that it had to pay nearly Rs 2 crore to the cable operators of Assam as distribution fees, which it could not pay, resulting in the black out of Prime News for nearly three weeks in the last month.
As the Prime News was also not available in any Direct To Home (DTH) service too, the news channel was virtually not visible for all these days resulting in a very poor TRP reading.
Taking advantage of the situation, the proprietor of the channel had suddenly decided to close down it, said a statement issued today by JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria.
The Assam-based scribe body maintained that the money received by the cable operators annually from the Guwahati-based privately-owned television channels for facilitating the distribution among the subscribers should be made taxable.
Moreover, the cable operators should be asked to provide due receipts to the subscribers against their monthly charge of Rupees 200 to 300 for the service.
Assam with a population of over 30 million supports 26 morning dailies and seven privately owned satellite news channels with few entertainment and cable channels.
The employees of Prime News have also dashed a letter to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari regarding the closure of the channel.
The media scene in the state was jolted with the sudden closure of two dailies in March this year, which were owned by the chit fund company Sharada Group. (UNI)