Highlighting Club Asia's callous behaviour towards Veena V
24th September, 2007
by Sunny Hundal
Editor
As anyone who works in British Asian media will tell you, stories of terrible management and callous regard for employees are plentiful.
So East London-based Club Asia's stunt this week will do nothing to help its reputation as a hip and progressive radio station.
Let me start by explaining this episode from the beginning. It was an open secret within the industry that some of Club Asia radio's presenters were leaving for new pastures.
I contacted its presenter Veena V (pictured) last week to say I was aware she was leaving and asked if she would be interested in commenting for a story. I barely know her. Given it was her last week on the show, she was happy to do so.
On AIM magazine I rarely choose to make a big deal about staff leaving or starting at Asian media companies unless they are already well known or the position has significance for others.
This story had added prominence since several other presenters, coincidentally, happened to be leaving around the same time.
Our story did not imply that staff were leaving Club Asia in droves because of similar issues or that the health of the station was under doubt.
My view is that Club Asia is a strong brand that has done well to cultivate and engage its core audience while being able to survive against its better established, funded and more aggressive rivals Sunrise and BBC Asian Network.
Veena V did not say anything about the other presenters, Bali Kaur and Ray Khan, nor about events coordinator Mandeep Nandra, leaving Club Asia. This is a small industry after all and news travels fast. I had all the information confirmed to me by several other sources.
In their eternal wisdom, the Club Asia management presumably saw the story as questioning the station's viability, which it clearly was not, and decided to vent their fury out on Veena V. She was not allowed to come in on her final day and tell her listeners that she was leaving the show.
I called several times and emailed them to explain her position but my calls were not returned. There are several ways to treat your employees badly and this must surely rank highly on the list.
Such behaviour only gives weight to those who say there is little professionalism in Asian media and its not worth working within the industry unless you plan a nervous breakdown.
And after over four years of running AIM magazine, I can safely say that such callous regard for employees is almost conventional in an industry that frequently claims to offer people their first leg up in the cut-throat world of media.
In fact, if libel laws in England were less strict here and more like the United States, we could have run a regular gossip column providing examples.
Fortunately, Farah Damji's antics ensured I had to learn about libel laws, defamation and get legal backing before I could go much further.
To avoid similar cases, the best decision broadcast journalists can make is join the NUJ and go to them for help when needed.
Either way, this whole sorry episode just illustrates how far Asian media has to go before it will be taken seriously, by those working within it and for those on the outside.
Editor
As anyone who works in British Asian media will tell you, stories of terrible management and callous regard for employees are plentiful.So East London-based Club Asia's stunt this week will do nothing to help its reputation as a hip and progressive radio station.
Let me start by explaining this episode from the beginning. It was an open secret within the industry that some of Club Asia radio's presenters were leaving for new pastures.
I contacted its presenter Veena V (pictured) last week to say I was aware she was leaving and asked if she would be interested in commenting for a story. I barely know her. Given it was her last week on the show, she was happy to do so.
On AIM magazine I rarely choose to make a big deal about staff leaving or starting at Asian media companies unless they are already well known or the position has significance for others.
This story had added prominence since several other presenters, coincidentally, happened to be leaving around the same time.
Our story did not imply that staff were leaving Club Asia in droves because of similar issues or that the health of the station was under doubt.
My view is that Club Asia is a strong brand that has done well to cultivate and engage its core audience while being able to survive against its better established, funded and more aggressive rivals Sunrise and BBC Asian Network.
Veena V did not say anything about the other presenters, Bali Kaur and Ray Khan, nor about events coordinator Mandeep Nandra, leaving Club Asia. This is a small industry after all and news travels fast. I had all the information confirmed to me by several other sources.
In their eternal wisdom, the Club Asia management presumably saw the story as questioning the station's viability, which it clearly was not, and decided to vent their fury out on Veena V. She was not allowed to come in on her final day and tell her listeners that she was leaving the show.
I called several times and emailed them to explain her position but my calls were not returned. There are several ways to treat your employees badly and this must surely rank highly on the list.
Such behaviour only gives weight to those who say there is little professionalism in Asian media and its not worth working within the industry unless you plan a nervous breakdown.
And after over four years of running AIM magazine, I can safely say that such callous regard for employees is almost conventional in an industry that frequently claims to offer people their first leg up in the cut-throat world of media.
In fact, if libel laws in England were less strict here and more like the United States, we could have run a regular gossip column providing examples.
Fortunately, Farah Damji's antics ensured I had to learn about libel laws, defamation and get legal backing before I could go much further.
To avoid similar cases, the best decision broadcast journalists can make is join the NUJ and go to them for help when needed.
Either way, this whole sorry episode just illustrates how far Asian media has to go before it will be taken seriously, by those working within it and for those on the outside.
