Assam Tribune Group Of Publications Draws The Public Attention For Wrong Reasons

By Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam 14 June 2025 The Covid-19 pandemic not only killed hundreds of media workers in India, but also snatched away the advertisement revenues with a drastically declining circulation figure, which are now reflected on ground. With a number of newspapers publishing groups across the country were compelled to close many editions, shut the publications or even sell to recover the growing depts. They incurred in the last few years. The negative developments also affected the financial benefits offered to media employees including the scribes and many of them were asked to leave the media houses with compromised compensations. Now the oldest media house in northeast India is facing dire consequences of the corona disaster, where the employees came out in public that they have not received their due salaries for months. The Assam Tribune group of publications, which was established by prominent Assamese entrepreneur Radha Govinda Baruah 87 years back, now draws the public attention for wrong reasons. Social media space is full of reports that the media group is on the verge of selling and the owner has lost interest in running the media outlets. Assam Tribune Employees’ Union (formed in 1956 and affiliated to All India Newspaper Employees’ Federation) recently stated that the employees were on the path of agitation since 13 May. Addressing a formal press meet in the city on 10 June, the ATEU representatives revealed that the employees of The Assam Tribune (en English daily), Dainik Asom (an Assamese daily with a supplement named Asom Bani), Gariyoshi (a literary monthly magazine) along with Sahitya Prakash and Tribune Press have not received their salaries for the last two months. ATEU president Shiva Prasad Deka and general secretary Dugdha Ram Kalita also added that a large number of employees are deprived of due benefits after their retirements. They however claimed that the agitation related activities are going on without hampering the working hours of the media house. Asserting that the group was first among newspaper houses across the country to implement the recommendations of Majithia Wage Board in 2010 for the benefits of its nearly 400 employees, the ATEU leaders lauded the former managing director Prafulla Govinda Baruah (second son of RG Baruah) for his efficient management policies. Salaries of employees in the prestigious group were never lapsed during his tenure as the managing director. However, recently PG Baruah’s daughter was placed in the passion as he was regularly suffering from old-age related ailments and trouble started brewing, alleged the union leaders. The current management cited the outstanding payment (to the tune of Rs 6 crores) from the government against the published advertisements in the last few months for the unwanted delays in releasing the employees’ salaries. The union representatives also appealed to the government for supporting the media houses of Assam with regular payments (against the sanctioned and published advertisements) with higher rates and also encouraging the government employees, educational institutions, libraries to buy the local newspapers regularly. They also made a tricky observation that the media houses should pursue other ways for revenue generation rather than waiting for the government sponsored advertisements. Meanwhile, the concerned management made an official statement citing some unfounded and misleading news relating to the sale of Assam Tribune group in different media platforms. The management categorically denied this information terming it as ‘entirely false and without merit’. The Assam Tribune remains firmly committed to its editorial independence, journalistic integrity, and continued service to its readers, advertisers, and stakeholders, asserted the management, adding that all concerned should ‘disregard such baseless speculation and refrain from spreading misinformation’. Critics argue that the prestigious Tribune house maintained its credibility while disseminating the information, editorial viewpoints and other pieces of articles, even though in some cases it was not maintained. In recent years, the media outlets under the group out rightly supported the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act movement at the end of 2019, which was flared up by a series of reports against the initiative of the Union government in New Delhi to welcome the persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Christian nationals coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Moreover, the people of Assam remember when these newspapers made voluminous reports on a city press club elections five years back with little credibility, where the editorial focus was exposed as biased, unprofessional and maligned with character assassinations to a particular individual. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/assam-tribune-public-attention-wrong-reasons/d/135863 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism