Recently, another unfortunate case of a media employee was brought to light on social media by RJ Sadia Sattar, who said that the employee suffered allegedly due to the negligence and indifference of his employer.
Mohammad Nasir, who reportedly died of cancer recently, was a cameraman for Geo News. RJ Sadia Sattar took to Twitter to explain the cameraman’s experience.
https://twitter.com/RJSadiaSattar__/status/1181523060509282306?s=20
Mohammad Nasir worked with Geo at a monthly wage of Rs17,000. The meager wage was further reduced later.
The cameraman suffered a knee injury while he was working on the case of Pakistan International Airlines’s privatisation during the government of PML-N led by Nawaz Sharif. The said injury was not cured and Nasir was later diagnosed with cancer.
Meanwhile, Nasir’s son dropped out of school because of the family’s inability to pay the school’s dues.
The cameraman’s health worsened, seemingly due to him not being able to pay for his treatment because of his low salary.
The incident raises a question on the poor conditions of employees in the media industry, not just due to the underpaying jobs, but also due to the organisations’ lack of concern for their employees.
Moreover, the incident also highlights the hypocrisy of the bigwigs in the media industry, both channel owners and popular news anchors, who otherwise raise voice for freedom and rights in the country and waste no time in pointing out labour issues in other industries, but fail to raise voice for their own.