Former ANN7 consulting editor, Rajesh Sundaram, says he fears for his life after resigning from the Gupta- founded network in a media expose.

When Sundaram quit the network, he says he was threatened by a bodyguard, offered a menial severance package and his hotel room was coincidentally burgled.

Sundaram came to South Africa three months ago from India, specifically to work at ANN7. He says his troubles started almost as soon as he landed. He worked 16-18 hour days without overtime pay, says there was heavy editorial interference (no ways!) and the general treatment of staff was sub par.

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, Sundaram said he was forced to take a pro-Jacob Zuma editorial line. He said:

We were told that Julius Malema must be shown as an opulent person. Newer political parties were to be referred to as ‘mushrooming smaller parties’ without any political clout. We were also told to ignore the DA

Sundaram said in his 20 years of working as a journalist, he has never experienced editorial interference like this.

While recounting his story, he talks about what it was like behind the scenes at this ill prepared network. He said:

I warned Mr Gupta about putting the cart before the horse. From experience, I know that a channel of this nature needs certain things before it can go live: first the equipment must arrive, the staff must be properly trained and then you need at least a month of dry-runs. None of those things happened at ANN7.

Sundaram finally had enough, and resigned. Atul Gupta asked him to announce to his social networks that he would be taking a two-week break, not to attract anymore negative attention from the media, he agreed to this stipulation.

As a severance package, ANN7 offered him five days pay and a return ticket to India. Sundaram repeatedly turned this down, as he felt he was owed for the huge amounts of overtime he put in at the station. Once he turned this down, he said he was followed and threatened by a body guard, threatened by a senior staff member, and then his hotel room was burgled. He acknowledges that this could be a coincidence, but this would be quite the coincidence.

Sundaram has rejected the severance package, noting that he will find his own way back to India, and wants to cut all ties with the Gupta family.

When recounting the threat he received from the senior staff member at ANN7, he said:

The employee said he would see me in Delhi and I took this as a threat. As a former conflict reporter, I know what these guys are capable of.

For some examples on why Sundaram resigned, follow the ANN7 fail train here, here and here.

[Source: Mail & Guardian]