Now Reading: Government says it received no formal complaints over Prasar Bharati autonomy
-
01
Government says it received no formal complaints over Prasar Bharati autonomy
Government says it received no formal complaints over Prasar Bharati autonomy
Samajwadi Party MPs Priya Saroj and Pushpendra Saroj asked the Lok Sabha whether journalists, staff or media bodies had raised any complaints about interference with Prasar Bharati's independence, its hiring decisions or…
Samajwadi Party MPs Priya Saroj and Pushpendra Saroj asked the Lok Sabha whether journalists, staff or media bodies had raised any complaints about interference with Prasar Bharati's independence, its hiring decisions or how its news operations are run, and what internal checks exist to catch bias or a lack of transparency. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan replied that none had come in over the preceding year, though the ministry had logged seven complaints from job applicants unhappy with appointment outcomes. Murugan said the Editor-in-Chief and senior editorial staff routinely vet content decisions at Prasar Bharati, offering guidance and corrective steps where needed, and that complaints from viewers about programming are passed on to the teams responsible for it. He added that the government's Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development scheme, which funds upgrades to Doordarshan and All India Radio's equipment, will now run until March 2027 rather than ending sooner.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Murugan's reply answers the two Samajwadi Party MPs' question narrowly: it counts zero grievances under the heading of formal representations, while separately confirming seven appointment complaints, without saying whether the two categories were ever meant to overlap. The internal review process he describes, oversight by the Editor-in-Chief and senior editorial teams, comes with no figure for how many viewer complaints came in or how many led to corrective action, so the response cannot be checked against a number the government has not supplied. Whether funding or project milestones follow before the Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development scheme's extended deadline in March 2027 will show whether the modernisation it funds is actually moving.
Source: www.indiatoday.in
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
