The News Minute | January 23, 2015 | 08:53 am IST
Kanwar Sandhu, a veteran journalist from Punjab, in a series of videos uploaded on YouTube in the recent few weeks has accused the trustees of The Tribune , a Chandigarh based newspaper, of using the paper to put forward their personal propaganda.
The Tribune is run by a trust and Sandhu had recently resigned as the executive editor of the paper.
In one of videos titled 'How Trustees have hijacked Tribune Founder's will', Sandhu alleges that 'over the years, the Trust and the Founder's Will (of The Tribune) has been hijacked by some of its Editors, Editor-in-Chiefs and Trustees'.
Stating that 'things have gone from bad to worse the Trustees who are supposed to be custodians of the Founder's Will in letter and spirit have been using and misusing the organisation for their own benefits'.
He also talks about 'J&K Governor NN Vohra'. News and photos of Vohra are a regular in The Tribune, more than even the CM of the state or PM of the nation, he says. 'This is a joke in the Tribune newsroom. But no one dares to speak up.'
'Why? Is it because he is the Trustee?', he asks. According to Vohra, people holding constitutional posts should not be made a trustee in the organisation, since it creates a conflict of interest.
Sandhu told Scroll.in. , "The J&K edition is being run as a personal fiefdom of the J&K governor," "This is the newspaper that I started my career with. When I joined the newspaper after so many years, I thought maybe I could contribute to it. But I soon realised that some of the trustees were running it for their own personal benefit."
Besides The Tribune, the Group has two other language publications, Dainik Tribune and Punjabi Tribune. Sandhu in another video says that the condition of these two papers are dismal today since they have been given step motherly treatment. 'It will surprise you to know that except for one odd person, none of the Editor-in-Chiefs appointed so far have known either of the two languages, especially Gurmukhi.'