Seventh Wage Board Award: A Triangular Conflict between Government, Media Owners and Journalists in Pakistan

A great majority of the Pakistani Journalists are living in a miserable condition receiving low salaries and no facilities. The Seventh Wage Board Award was a ray of hope for them, when it was announced. This is a hot issue of today’s Pakistani Journalism. It was announced in 2001 by a Wage Board constituted by the Government of Pakistan under Newspapers’ Employees’ Act 1973. Even after a period of ten years, it has not been implemented by the media organization till the end of 2011. The journalists welcomed this award because a reasonable increase in their salaries was recommended in this award. On the other side, the newspaper owners totally rejected this award labeling it as an unaffordable burden on the economy of media organizations. They filed a petition to the Supreme Court of Pakistan against this award in June 2002 which was rejected by the Supreme Court in April 2004. The government is favoring the journalist community regarding implementation of this award. In reaction to this, the newspaper owners launched a huge advertising campaign against Seventh Wage Board Award and strongly criticized the government including President, Prime Minister and Information Minister. Now the government has become a sandwich between Media owners and working journalists. This paper attempts to investigate the viewpoints and arguments of journalists, media owners and the role of government in this regard and also suggests some solution to resolve the issue. The Seventh Wage Board Award is an issue which has great concern for the whole society, in general and for the government and the journalism community, in particular. The implementation of the wage board award is still hanging in the air even after passing a decade after its announcement.