Turmoil At The Hindu?

It’s no secret that when a change of guard happens at the management level at news media organisations, it impacts employees at other levels too. Editors and bureau chiefs resigning can sometimes mean bad news since it can cast a shadow of uncertainty over those left behind.

Journalist Praveen Swami was perhaps alluding to this phenomenon when he hints that reporters were meted out “shabby treatment” in the email he sent out to his colleagues after resigning from The Hindu. News of Swami and Rural Affairs Editor P Sainath quitting The Hindu started doing the rounds last week. Swami tweeted on July 13 that he was delighted to join The Indian Express:

Then, portions of Swami’s email to his colleagues after resigning from The Hindu were leaked out and carried on bestmediainfo.com. Swami’s email made it clear that working at The Hindu had been unpleasant for some time now. When contacted to elaborate on the immediate reasons for his quitting The Hindu, Swami said he would not like to talk about it since he was contract-bound to not speak. Swami will be joining The Indian Express on August 1. But sources at The Hindu claim that all has not been hunky dory since Siddharth Varadarajan quit as the paper’s editor last year in October. Reporters hired by Varadarajan were looked at with suspicion and not trusted by the new dispensation, alleged one source who requested anonymity. “Beats were changed randomly for no apparent reason and the bureau has been in a state of chaos. Some state reporters performing well were brought back to Delhi.”

It was also alleged that reporters who congratulated Swami for his new job at The Indian Express on his Twitter handle were pulled up for doing so and told that “they will be disciplined”.

We called up Malini Parthasarathy, editor of The Hindu, to respond to these allegations. She stated that she would not like to comment on the issue. “I cannot be responding to every slanderous comment being made by anyone who leaves the organisation,” she said.

While it’s true that comments made by disgruntled employees on their way out may be suspect, but surely Parthasarathy is being a little old-school in not clearing the air, especially when we all know how matters can escalate on social media.

It would be nice if the news media, which expects a byte or a comment on every developing story, would, for a change, comment on stories involving themselves.