Keralas Marxist-promoted TV channel sacks about 60 employees

Keralas Marxist-promoted TV channel sacks about 60 employees

A political party which vehemently fought retrenchment and privatisation in state-run companies is now letting the media company it promoted jettison staff on account of faction fights and mounting losses.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and the Kairali TV channel promoted by it are in the news again in Kerala, for reportedly sacking about 60 employees. The party has come in for a lot criticism in the local media for alleged double standards towards the employees who have been reportedly served termination notices by the channel after a meeting of its board of directors in the third week of September.

The director¿s meeting presided over by Mammooty, the South Indian superstar, decided to close down the bureaus at Kollam and Palakkad, as well as sack several producers and two directors, K.R. Mohanan and Sundaram, ostensibly due to financial difficulties.

But media reports here have also attributed the downsizing to serious fighting between the two factions of the CPM, the north group led by state CPM secretary Pinnarayi Vijayan and the south lobby of opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan.

The other reason, according to reports, is to arrest the channel¿s mounting losses, which was estimated at more than Rs. 70 million a few months back.

Reports said factional feuds were directly responsible for the sacking of some of the six journalists who have been asked to go. Both the Kollam and Palaghat bureaus of the channel were reportedly close to Achuthanandan. But the overall control of the channel lay with the north lobby led by Vijayan.

Most of the journalists who have been shown the door are from the Kochi office, where it is believed the chief news editor was axed because he refused to cater to viewpoints of the two factions in the programmes.

Last week¿s meeting also reshuffled directors heading major divisions such as news, audit, administration and marketing. Economist-turned-legislator Thomas Issac, one of the directors, was handed the charge of the news.

Issac, who held a meeting with the sacked staff Monday, said most of the outgoing employees understood the reason they were being asked to leave. "We have told them we would try our best to do something for them and parting from the channel should not be seen as a punishment. I think most of them understood what I said," Issac told IANS.

Another director denied reports that the channel was in a crisis on account of the factional feuds. "There is nothing of that sort and one of the main reason for downsizing is that we have given a commitment to the shareholders to break even before the end of the third year," the director told IANS.

Asked why the party that vehemently fought retrenchment and privatisation in the state-run companies was now jettisoning its own staff, he said: "Ours is a new company and it cannot be compared to government enterprises. All the employees are on contract. Everyone who has been asked to leave would be given what we have stated in the contract. "We have to see that the cost is kept at the minimum and now that we are on the right track, we felt that only downsizing would help us."

The Kairali TV channel was launched in August last year amid reports that large amount of money had been collected from the state¿s powerful liquor mafia. The channel has 2,35,546 shareholders - majority of whom are CPM workers - and a capital base of Rs. 584.5 million.

The CPM had initially tried to disown the channel, but could not hide its ownership for long when letters written by state secretary Pinnarayi Vijayan asking the party cadres to contribute to the channel by taking shares were published in the local papers.