Racism in media?

BY Manu Moudgil| IN Media Practice | 03/02/2013

The former South Asia bureau chief of Der Spiegel accuses the magazine of discrimination in employment matters.

MANU MOUDGIL profiles the case. Pix of Padma Rao by Namas Bhojani.

Media has long upheld the values of equality, human rights and justice for all which is why it's surprising when a prominent publication is accused of racism by one of its own journalists.

Padma Rao, the former South Asia Bureau Chief of the German news magazine Der Spiegel, recently filed a petition against her ex-employer on the grounds that though her job was identical to other foreign correspondents, she was not given identical benefits.

Der Spiegel had appointed Rao in 1998 under an annually-renewable freelance contract. Though the official letters sent by the magazine to various embassies and the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of India certified her as its Southasia correspondent and chief of bureau, she had a pay-scale much lower than her counterparts, no pension, no shares in the company, no insurance and absolutely no other benefits. “The company kept putting off all my requests for either a permanent contract or, at least a small element of ‘social security’ in my existing contract,” she says.

Having covered several important events and interviewed prominent personalities for the magazine for last 14 years. Rao was hoping for a permanent position with the organisation. However, Der Spiegel kept putting off all her requests for either a permanent contract or an element of social security in the existing contract.

Rao had a good run with the organisation for the initial 10 years before a new editorial leadership took over. “Though I had been the longstanding PIB-accredited bureau chief and correspondent for the magazine, I was suddenly told that I was to be demoted to researcher under two new correspondents. They began shrinking my stories to small items and assigned my story ideas to others,” she says.

The matter acquired racial tendencies in January 2011 when replying to her request for a permanent employment, Der Spiegel praised her work but added: “The only thing standing between you and a permanent position is the beautiful story as can only be expected from a German native-speaker.” The argument also occurred unjust to Rao because several of her stories had been published in the same magazine for 13 years with bylines as ‘our South Asia correspondent’. The last straw came in November 2011 when the magazine refused to issue her a routine letter for accreditation with PIB, India, as their correspondent and instead designated her as a reporter/researcher.

Rao approached the labour court in Germany requesting that by virtue of her longstanding and uninterrupted service, she be recognised as a permanent employee. While the case was on, her annual contract with the magazine expired in April 2012 and was not renewed. Her petition was dismissed on the grounds that since she did not inform the court about non-renewal of the contract, it conveys that she was unwilling to continue working with Der Spiegel. The court instead asked the magazine to give her some money. It offered Euro 10,000 (approx. Rs 6.9 lakh) as compensation, which she declined.

Rao is now planning to pursue the case in India. “At the age of 53 and after giving the publication my best professional years, I am now left to fend for myself on a job market flooded, in the interim, with younger people. I don’t have the resources to approach a higher instance in Germany and am now examining the legal options open to me in India,” she says.

Her lawyer Suman Doval believes that since Rao had rights and duties identical to her permanent counterparts, she was entitled to identical benefits. “She was working for the last 14 years without any break which also signifies that the editors had no problem with the quality of her work,” he adds.

Refusing to comment in detail, Britta Sandberg, the Senior Foreign Editor of Der Spiegel said, “Padma Rao never had a contract as a foreign correspondent.” As the matter stands now, the question is not about the contract signed but the arguments given to deny equal benefits to a long-serving employee. The incident also underscores the fact that media professionals are increasingly finding themselves betrayed by their own organisations which ironically stand for a fair society.