Journalists call for regular payment

TIRANA, Aug 31 – The Journalists Union has strongly asked all media owners to respect the contract and make the payment of the reporters regularly.
The Union expressed in a statement its serious concern on the critical situation of the real social economic situation of most of the journalists in the media market.
It said that about 60 percent of the media outlets have been irregular in the regular monthly payment of the journalists during the last half of the year. There are many cases when the monthly payment is delayed for days and up to three months.
Out of 24 daily newspapers 16 of them do not respect a normal payment of their reporters. Nor do they have deposited the amount of money that should be normally used for their payment.
They have also not deposited the regular social insurance for the reporters and also the taxation payment.
The union also said that one fourth of the staff of the newspapers are students who very often are exploited as a pressure tools on elder journalists.
The Union asked the government authorities to check the businesses for such issues and also called on the media owners not to apply black labor as journalists.
Fighting informality in the media should be a top priority for the new parliament, the statement said.
The Union also called on international institutions to support their efforts to fight such a black reality.
It was also called for by the Union that the media owners sign labor contracts with journalists and respect them onwards.