The Prasar Bharati board chairperson's position remains vacant since Dr A. Surya Prakash finished his second term in February 2020.[3] He had succeeded Dr Mrinal Pande.[4] Sh. Gaurav Dwivedi is the CEO of Prasar Bharati (he succeeded Shashi Shekhar Vempati who was the CEO until June 2022).
Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 said that DD News and All India Radio are the most trusted News brands in India.[5]
Act
The Prasar Bharati Act provides for the establishment of a Broadcasting Corporation, to be known as Prasar Bharati, and define its composition, functions, and powers.[6] The Act grants autonomy to All India Radio and to Doordarshan, both of which were previously under government control.[6] The Act received the assent of the President of India on 12 September 1990[1] after being unanimously passed by Parliament. It was finally implemented in November 1997. By the Prasar Bharati Act, all property, assets, debts, liabilities, payments of money due, as well as all suits and legal proceedings involving Akashvani (All India Radio) and Doordarshan were transferred to Prasar Bharati.
The organization started as All India Radio (AIR) in the past and Doordarshan (DD) was born to cater television services later and finally came Prasar Bharati (PB) by enactment of an act by the parliament,
Composition
The Prasar Bharati Act vests the general superintendence, direction, and management of affairs of the Corporation in the Prasar Bharati Board which may exercise all such powers and do all such acts and things as may be exercised or done by the corporation.[6]
Two representatives of the employees, of whom one shall be elected by the engineering staff from amongst themselves and one shall be elected by the other employee from amongst themselves.
The President of India appoints the chairman and the other Members, except the ex officio members, nominated member and the elected members. Board meetings must be held at least once in every three months each year.
Chairman – Vacant.[11] The Chairman is appointed by the President.
Member (Personnel) – Additional charge with CEO Shri Gaurav Dwivedi
Ex-Officio Members – Vacant
Nominated Members – 2 Vacancies
Strategic interventions (2017 onwards)
In May 2020, Doordarshan and All India Radio began broadcasting[12] weather reports on Mirpur, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in their prime time news bulletins. Pakistan had rejected this move by India, terming it as a "legally void" action to change the status of the region.
Reforms in public broadcasting in India (2017 onwards)
Obsolete technologies are being replaced with new technologies. Starting from 2017, more than 1200 old technology[13] Analog Transmitters have been phased out and 23 Digital Transmitters have been installed at 19 locations across the country.
Transformation of Doordarshan (2017 onwards)
The footprint of Doordarshan has increased between 2017 and 2021. In 2017, the number of satellite channels stood at 23 as opposed to 36 in 2021.
Timeline of ATT Phase out and Resource rationalisation:
Year
Number of ATTs phased out
Spectrum Bandwidth Freed
IEBR Expenditure Reduction/Annum
Manpower Freed
2017–18
306
7 MHz for VHF,
8 MHz UHF
Approx ₹100 Cr
2522
2018–19
468
2019–20
6
2020–21
46
2021–22
412
By 21 Oct – 152
By 21 Dec – 109
By 22 Mar – 151
Controversies
In 2010, as many as 24 candidates out of the 30 selected for the posts of journalists in Doordarshan News were alleged to have been appointed on the basis of political considerations.[14] For example, one of the successful candidates was closely related to a former Congress Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, another successful candidate was the daughter of a sitting Congress Union minister, and a third was a close relative of Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.[15][16]
The number of applicants called for interview was increased from 25 to 35 to accommodate the daughter of a Congress politician, who held the 33rd rank, and would have otherwise been eliminated at the cut-off stage. Another successful candidate, Anika Kalra Kalha, was not even called for an audition and reporting skills test, and the remark in the relevant columns read “Did not qualify for this stage”. Similarly, the weightage given to interviews was arbitrarily increased two days before they were held.[15]
In 2014, over allegations of DD editing out portions of interview of the then BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi, then Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had admitted that some parts of the interview "were apparently edited" and pointed a finger at then I&B Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant the "operational autonomy" that the public broadcaster had been seeking for years.[17]
In August 2017, then Tripura CM Manik Sarkar alleged that Doordarshan and All India Radio had refused to broadcast his Independence Day speech unless he reworked it.[18]
In September 2017, following instructions from the ministry of information and broadcasting, Doordarshan had put on hold prime time slots auctioned to Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms and Saaibaba Telefilms.[19]
Fake offer/appointment letters for jobs at Prasar Bharati's DD Kisan channel were given by scamsters on fake letter heads of DD Kisan.[20]
In September 2017, following a complaint of alleged abuse of dominance with regard to infrastructural facilities for FM radio broadcasting, Competition Commission ordered a fresh investigation against Prasar Bharati.[21]
In March 2018, then Prasar Bharati Chairman Dr. A Surya Prakash said that the I&B Ministry had been refusing funds to Prasar Bharati since December 2017 and that the funds for the month of January and February were drawn from the broadcaster's contingency funds to pay its employees’ salaries.[22]
In early 2019, Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry floated a draft Bill ‘Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2019’, which would have given Ministry the power to appoint Director Generals of Doordarshan and All India Radio directly,[23] instead of the then practice of recruitment of DGs through Prasar Bharati Board. The Bill sought to remove the provision to establish a recruitment board ‘Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board’ (PBRB). According to the explanatory note of the draft Bill, “As per Section 9 of the Prasar Bharati Act, officers and employees of the public broadcaster were to be appointed in ‘consultation’ with the Recruitment Board, which was to be established as per Section 10 of the Act. However, the Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board (PBRB) could not be established due to one or another reason” and the ministry has now decided “not to establish PBRB” and remove the relevant section of the Act which empowered Prasar Bharati to set up recruitment boards.” Soon after, the notification seeking public feedback on the draft Bill was removed from the Ministry’s website, and another notice was issued which said that “the matter has been kept in abeyance till further orders”.
In April 2019, then Congress President Rahul Gandhi's office did not respond to Prasar Bharati CEO's request for Gandhi's interview by DD News. Earlier that month, Congress had submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission with allegations of bias in the political coverage by the public broadcaster.[24]
In October 2019, Prasar Bharati suspended a Chennai Doordarshan Kendra[25] official citing "disciplinary proceedings". According to media reports, Doordarshan Kendra assistant director R Vasumathi had allegedly blocked the telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at IIT Madras.
In March 2020, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati turned down BBC[26] invite for an awards function, alleging that the BBC did “one-sided” reporting on Delhi violence in February 2020. In his letter to BBC Director General, Vempati said, “I must respectfully decline the invitation in view of the recent coverage of the BBC of certain incidents of violence in Delhi.”
In February 2021, Twitter blocked the account of Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati[27] for using a hashtag which was deemed inappropriate by the government. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who chairs the Parliamentary Committee on Data Protection Bill, condemned blocking of Prasar Bharati CEO's account, saying that Twitter has "victimised the person who told you to take the right step”. The account was restored later in the day.
In October 2021, a few media reports alleged that Prasar Bharati is shutting down transmission[28] from DD Kalaburagi and DD Silchar. Taking note of these reports, Prasar Bharati clarified that broadcast reform steps to phase out obsolete analog terrestrial TV transmitters was being misrepresented.[29] That these DD Centres will continue to generate program content for broadcasting on the satellite channels of Doordarshan dedicated to their respective States, apart from maintaining their presence on digital media via YouTube and on social media. For instance, program content generated by DD Silchar and DD Kalaburagi shall now be broadcast on DD Assam and DD Chandana respectively.
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