Sunday, November 22, 2009

Najam Sethi Speaks

So, after a lot of speculation and mudslinging about the organizational downslide of The Daily Times and Aaj Kal among staffers and assorted journalists, the big man has himself broken his silence on a journalists' forum.

Here is what Najam Sethi himself wrote today:

Dear Friends,

You should know the facts: I resigned from Daily Times as Editor and from Media Times (which owns Daily Times) as Director on 11 October 2009 after six months of fighting with the management over employee rights, including salaries and increments and downsizing. I was accused by the Chief Financial Officer of taking the side of employees and "bleeding the paper". This is known to the staff. My senior colleagues Khaled Ahmed, Ejaz Haider and Ata Musawwir and Qasim Nauman have also resigned to back up my position. What more can we say?

Najam Sethi

Just so you remember, this is where we first wrote about the resignations. That was October 11, the exact date Najam now admits he resigned.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

IDK what to say really. The quality of the paper has gone done for sure. Just look at the editorials.

The "Big Man" was willing to let it all go down the drain just to prevent some cost cutting. Seriously WTF or rather Why TF?

Anonymous said...

*protest not prevent

2 Tok said...

Without any doubt:

CAFEPYALA - The first place (CAFE) where you can see the STORMS in (media) PYALA :)

Anonymous said...

I'm a former Daily Times employee but I won't say who I am. I quit several months before Najam because I could see where it was going.

The quality of the paper went down because cost-cutting meant a) Salaries being delayed by up to two months ruining the morale in an already underpaid newsroom, b) No increments for two years causing people to leave for greener pastures and c) incompetent replacements being hired on very low salaries.

When a reporter or a subeditor does not know how he'll pay his child's school fee or when he should promise his landlord he would pay the rent, the least he expects from the editor is to speak for him.

A Punjab University schmuck you hire for 15k does not have the capacity to produce the same content as 50k news writers.

It is interesting that while the most competent of Najam's people resigned with him, resident editor Zishan Bhutta, who most people think is another reason for the drop in quality, is still around.

I have heard that some top former Daily Times employees are working on plans to bring out a new community-oriented sustainability and environment related newspaper.

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Anonymous said...

Fighting for your team is a quality of a good leader i salute you, hope people here understand the importance of a Team Player and a good team

Unknown said...

Termination Of Zeeshan Bhutta because he chose the same way like Najam
Sethi (fighting with the management over employee rights, including
salaries on times , almost three months salaries are not paid by the
management) Power Less Asher john and 10 other resignation where u
people see the Daily Times (Dead Times) is going? What will be the
future of Rashid Rehman and his biggest flatterers?

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