Confederation of Asian Journalists Union (CAJU) and the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) have expressed shock and dismay over the decision to close down the prestigious news agency Australian Associated Press (AAP) from June this year after uninterrupted service of 85 years. It has established many milestones of excellent journalism in the world. With the closure of Australian Associated Press hundreds of journalists and non-journalists’ employees, would be rendered jobless.
In a joint statement, Muditha Kariyakarawana, the President of the Confederation of Asian Journalists Union, who is also the President of Sri Lanka Press Association (SLPA) and the Secretary-General of the CAJU and the IFWJ, Parmanand Pandey has sent a letter of solidarity to the employees of the AAP and exhorted them to fight for saving the news agency and in case that is not possible the proprietors should be compelled to pay adequate compensation as cushion money so that they can start their life afresh.
It may be noted here that this prestigious news agency is owned by Keith Murdoch, who is the son of Media Mughal, the late Rupert Murdoch, considered as the predator of many media houses across the globe and he started. This News Agency has been providing uninterrupted services from 1935. It is believed that AAP has been running into a loss for some time as a major chunk of advertisements have been grabbed by global digital giants ‘Google’ and ‘Facebook’.
The closure of Australian Associated Press (AAP), said Mr Kariyakarawana and Pandey, is a grim reminder to most of the print medium outlets, particularly of developing countries, to go for the diversification to other modes of media so that the jobs of not only existing employees of the newspapers and News agencies be saved but new jobs could be created for the young generation of journalists.
Parmanand Pandey
Secretary-General, CAJU
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