I am a freelance writer. And I have a very bad experience with Hyderabad News Network (HNN) that I want to share here on this forum. It all started sometime in May this year when I sent an article to be considered for publishing on HNN's blogspot. Mr. M. H. Ahssan, the only person at HNN with whom I had all my email exchanges with said he would get back to me but never did. Soon after a month or so when I was shocked to see my article published on hyd-news.blogspot.com. HNN did not care to inform me. However, I wanted to follow the ethics and I immediately wrote a mail to Mr. Ahssan asking him if publishing my article actually meant that I could start writing for his blog and he replied in the affirmative. Mr. Ahssan further said that he would put me on a contract period for one month to look at my articles, pay for the submissions and then decide on extending my contract. I believed him.

And till July 16, 2009, the date on which my one month contract with HNN expired, I had written 14 articles and all of them got published. Meanwhile, on the request of Mr. Ahssan, I had forwarded my bank details to HNN for payment. This only added my faith that I will be paid for my submissions. But I was duped! After my July 16 and 20th mails went unanswered, I sent another reminder on July 21, 2009 and this time Mr. Ahssan replied that my payments will be posted soon and urged me to keep writing. He also added that my confirmation orders will be emailed to me within 72 hours. But none of this happened! After this, I had written reminders almost everyday to Mr. M. H. Ahssan reminding him of my payments and also the status of my contract. But nothing has happened so far. I called him on his mobile and as expected the number was not in use. Before this I had sent a couple of SMSes to his mobile too.

The blogspot boasts of big names like Karan Thapar, Veer Singhania, Sarah Williams, and others on its editorial panel but that hasn't seem to have any effect when it comes to payment for articles published. I really do not know how many more were duped like me! I feel insulted that companies like HNN could lure freelancers like me, use our writing services and dupe us by not paying us and still get away with it. There has to be stringent laws against these erring companies and individuals associated with it.