The government has asked Prasar Bharati to draw up a standard operating procedure (SOP) that should be followed while responding to a call from the Prime Minister’s Office to record urgent public messages.
The direction has come after a Doordarshan crew arrived late for recording a message by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently, resulting in his statement being recorded by a private news agency and an unintended remark at the end of the speech getting broadcast unedited by TV channels.
The late arrival of the Doordarshan crew to record Singh’s message — that contained an appeal for peace by protesters demanding justice for the Delhi gangrape victim — on December 25 had an undesired fallout. The private news agency provided the recorded feed to TV channels without editing it, resulting in broadcast of the PM’s casual “theek hai” (is it alright) query at the end. Singh was inquiring if the recording was fine as the teleprompter was also missing since the DD team was to bring the equipment.
The query went viral online and protesters used this to ridicule the PM. The Doordarshan later suspended two cameramen and three technicians for failure to reach on time. An internal inquiry is on as those suspended said they were delayed by traffic restrictions.
Now, the I&B Ministry has asked the Prasar Bharati to come up with a SOP to avert such a slip-up. I&B Minister Manish Tewari said a “formal reference” has been made to the Prasar Bharati and it is looking at how to cut “response time”. Tewari said, the procedure should be in place as the need for the PM to address the nation can arise anytime.
Prasar Bharati sources said ideas like setting up a rudimentary recording facility at the PM’s residential complex and keeping an OB (outside broadcasting) van ready and personnel on standby at the Doordarshan’s headquarters could be explored. The SOP, sources said, would lay down the response time.
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