The Editors Guild of India has expressed deep concern at the abrupt termination of four senior editorial team members of Forbes India, including its Editor, Indrajit Gupta; Managing Editor Charles Assisi, Executive Editor Shishir Prasad and Director (Photography) Dinesh Krishnan.
These journalists had worked with the magazine since its inception as part of the launch team and their sudden removal without reasonable notice and even elementary courtesy cuts at the very root of editorial independence. Basic security and protection from arbitrary action were essential if senior journalists were to go about their task with courage and fairness, the Guild said in a statement.
Whether their termination was a reaction to their insistence on exercising their contractual rights to employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) or the result of an overall restructuring exercise undertaken by the company was a question to be settled in another forum, and preferably by way of negotiations leading to an agreed solution, the Guild pointed out. Considering that senior journalists were involved in this dispute with a media house, the Guild would reiterate at this stage that it was essential that all contracts should be honoured.
