http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/editorial_channel-fix_1277711
Editorial Channel fix Monday, July 27, 2009 20:34 IST Prasar Bharati has set aside Rs100 crore to set a channel which will put forward India's viewpoint to the world, on the lines of Al Jazeera or the British Broadcasting Corporation. Does India need to make this special effort to put forward its viewpoint to the world, when presumably this will be the viewpoint of the government of the day? And will this then not smack of some kind of a public relations exercise for the government? What purpose will be served when India already has a strong, vibrant and free media? The biggest question of all however pertains to Doordarshan, the government-owned broadcaster. After Prasar Bharati had been established in 1997, DD is supposed to be an independent broadcaster but has not been able to assert its independent identity. The nation was once forced to watch Doordarshan news, which meant that everyone knew which new projects which minister had inaugurated. Since then, we've had a veritable explosion of news channels and whatever personal view may be, there is no doubt that we get a wide and varied perspective. How will one more state-run news and views channel really get us noticed in the world? The BBC may be a public broadcaster, funded by TV licence fees and the government but it is hardly the voice of the government any more --not since perhaps the Second World War. It is now seen as a reliable source of news in many parts of the world and is considered to be non-partisan. All this requires extensive journalistic rigour. Is that likely in a news service run by bureaucrats and politicians? Although Al Jazeeera is effectively funded by the Qatar government and was set up after it was seen that the western media showed some bias in its portrayal of events in the Middle East especially after the war in Iraq started in 2003, it has since then been critical of regimes in the area and shown some cutting edge journalism. Government in India has to get out of the business of moulding opinion and interfering in freedom of thought and expression. This is old-style socialist thinking which has no place in today's world. The media of a democracy has to be free to be fair and that is hardly likely if politicians decide policy or direction of news. There must also be choice so that readers and viewers can make their own views from a variety of options.
