Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Najam Sethi Speaks - Update 1

Uh-oh. I think this is going to get ugly. Now Media Times (the parent company of Daily Times) Chief Financial Officer has responded to Najam Sethi's post on the journalists' mailing list. Of course, he was probably compelled to respond by what Najam said about him in his post...

So here's what Suhail Ahmed-the-CFO says, verbatim:

Hello friends,

I am amazed at this blatant fabrication by Najam Sethi and his claims of heroism for the rights of employees. Here are the facts;

(1) All he ever fought for was his own benefits and rights till 20th October 2009. He was trying to negotiate with the owners for a special deal for "his team" as he called it.

(2) The owners were fed up with his blatant abuse of their generosity, moon lightning at DUNYA TV for Rs. 1.2 million a month, padding expenses, misusing the Daily Times facilities to promote various personal ventures (all of which failed) including his TV channel.

(3) For a long period of time he barely visited the offices of Daily Times under the comic pretext that "his life was in danger".

(4) Sorry Najam you have been exposed many times before: please save us from this bullshit.

Suhail Ahmed.

CFO - Media Times Limited.


Someday I want to do a post about how much journalists are really earning these days. Watch this space for updates.

5 comments:

  1. Please do write the post on journalist salaries. I read through the leaked salary document of the National newspaper in Abu Dhabi. Who knew journalists could make this much? To be fair, the paper is owned by the ruling Emirate family and they wanted to produce a first class paper and recognised they'd have to pay first class salaries to recruit journalists.

    I'm curious to read how much editors in Pakistan, both in English and Urdu print, are earning to produce their publications.

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  2. somehow this seems to be a more plausible explanation of events. I don't think there any editors around in Pakistan in this day and age who would actually fight for the rights or wages of its employees. All they care for is their own salaries and perks.

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  3. Abbas Nasir, editor of Dawn, is an exception. One of the first things he did is raise salaries -- in some cases double, nearly triple -- of editorial employees. He did this across the board, irrespective of one's skills or competence--because everyone at the time was being paid awfully. Now I hear salaries are raised based on performance.

    About Najam Sethi, I have always heard that the Friday Times was (is?) a terrible paymaster. He didn't seem particularly benevolent when hiring for DT.

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  4. We as a Nation has morally and ethically sink to a depth where some one can wonder how low to go. No finger pointing, we are all naked in the Hamam. No fun of seeing a pot calling a kettle black.

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