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Monday, May 5, 2014

I&B Ministry at an arm's length with Prasar Bharati: Tewari

I&B Ministry at an arm's length with Prasar Bharati: Tewari  

Source: moneycontrol.com/ May 03, 2014



On Friday, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had distanced himself from the interview editing row saying that Doordarshan lacks autonomy. He claimed that a "shadow" still looms over government servants posted at DD which is leading to lack of credibility of the public broadcaster.


The row over Bharatiya Janata Party Prime Ministerial Narendra Modi's interview with Doordarshan News has escalated. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari has hit back at the BJP and the national broadcaster saying that the ministry is at an arm's length with Prasar Bharati. "The I&B Ministry is at an arm's length with the Prasar Bharati. The autonomy of Prasar Bharati is guaranteed by the act of Parliament," Tewari said. Earlier, the BJP had claimed that under pressure from the government, Doordarshan had edited out certain key parts of Modi's interview. Modi himself had reacted to the row citing the emergency to call the editing out of portions of his interview a blot on democracy. "I feel very sad to see our National TV channel struggling to maintain its professional freedom. We have witnessed the horrors of Emergency when freedom of the Press and freedom of expression were suppressed. It is a blot on our democracy," Modi tweeted on Saturday. On Friday, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had distanced himself from the interview editing row saying that Doordarshan lacks autonomy. He claimed that a "shadow" still looms over government servants posted at DD which is leading to lack of credibility of the public broadcaster. In a letter to the members of the Prasar Bharati Board, he wrote about the lack of operational autonomy from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. "A young minister didn't give greater autonomy," he reportedly wrote in his letter. However, denying any wrongdoing, Doordarshan in a statement said, "There was no deliberate editing or omission of any portion of the interview. Wherever editing was done, it was for technical reasons and during post-production. There was no interference or control from any authority in the entire process." DD also said that important portions of the interview were used in all the important bulletins of DD News and was even given wide pre-telecast publicity and was repeated the next day. The interview had created a storm with reports that Modi had referred to Priyanka Gandhi as her daughter. However, Modi's office on Friday released the full interview, pointing out that Modi never said that Congress President Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi is like his daughter. In his comment on Priyanka, Modi was seen saying that he will not be angry even if Congress President Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi hurls a hundred curses at him.


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