Prasar Bharti - Controversy, History, MCQs etc...

Why in news?

India's national broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. The controversy over alleged editing of the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's interview to DD has led to a huge controversy prompting the Prasar Bharati CEO Jawahar Sircar to issue a clarification indirectly accusing the Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari of interfering in the running of DD. A well respected bureaucrat, Sircar took on Tewari as he said that the minister failed in granting "operational autonomy" to the public broadcaster that it has been seeking for years

Now About Prasar Bharti
Prasar Bharati is India's largest public broadcaster. It is an autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament and comprises Doordarshan television network and All India Radio which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Prasar Bharati was established following a demand that government owned broadcasters in India should be given autonomy like those in many other countries. The Parliament of India passed an Act to grant this autonomy in 1990, but it was not enacted until September 15, 1997.

Mrinal Pandey is the chairperson of Prasar Bharati and Jawhar Sircar is the CEO.

Prasar Bharati Act stipulates general superintendence, direction and management of affairs of the Corporation vests in 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.

Prasar Bharati Board consists of:

1. Chairman
2. One Executive Member
3. One Member (Finance)
4. One Member (Personnel)
5. Six Part-time Members
6. Director-General (Akashvani), ex officio
7. Director-General (Doordarshan), ex officio
8. One representative of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), to be nominated by that Ministry and
9. Two representatives of the employees of the Corporation, 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 Chairman and the other Members, except the ex officio members, nominated member and the elected members.

The Board shall meet not less than six meetings every year but three months shall not intervene between one meeting and the next meeting.

Now Some history of it

B G Verghese Committee
The Janta Government had appointed a Working Group on the autonomy of the Akashwani and Doordarshan in August 1977. The chairman of this committee was B.G. Verghese. The committee submitted its report on February 24, 1978. This committee's main recommendation was "formation of Akash Bharti or the "National Broadcasting Trust", both for the AIR and Doordarshan. The committee noted that the people want an independent corporation because, the executive, abetted by a captive parliament, shamelessly misused the Broadcasting during emergency and this must be prevented for all times. Such was the bold recommendation of this committee, which wanted substantial "Constitutional Safeguards" for the recommended body. But these recommendations could not find favour of even Janta rulers.

The result was that the report was thrown in dustbin. This followed a bill in May 1979 introduced by LK Advani, who was information and Broadcasting minister in the Government. The bill proposed the "Autonomous Corporation" known as Prasar Bharti for both AIR and Doordarshan. But the bill was introduced in the compromised state, rejecting the provisions of the constitutional safeguards. Meanwhile the Lok Sabha dissolved guaranteeing the death of this bill.

P C Joshi Committee
After that Congress was back in power, but it did not considered necessary to reintroduce such bill. Though it appointed PC Joshi Committee in 1982, whose main term of reference was to prepare a software plan for Doordarshan. But this group also emphasized on the absence of "Functional Freedom" in Prasar Bharti. This committee said that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should be reorganized and a separate board on the lines of Railway Board should be created, in which only people with professional experience should get entry. So, slowly a consensus developed for a Television Authority of India -as a public trust and under the control of the parliament and officed with only experienced professionals.

In 1989, the National Front government came into power. It introduced Prasar Bharti Bill in December 1989. The bill was introduced by P Upendra, the minister, who borrowed some of the articles from the previous bill introduced by Advani and also added some new ethos as per the changed scenario. The Prasar Bharti Bill, moved by the VP Singh Government got the confidence of BJP, Leftists and Congress as well and was passed in Lok Sabha in August 1990.

So, to provide for the establishment of Broadcasting Corporation for India, to be known as Prasar Bharati, to define its composition, functions and powers and to proved for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, the Prasar Bharti Act was passed. Now from April 1, 1991, it was to be given the president's assent and the Prasar Bharti Corporation was to begin functioning from that date. But the Government changed meanwhile and the Chandrasekhar Government maintained status quo.

In 1992, the Information and Broadcasting ministry of PV Narsihma Rao government noted down that "the time has changed now" and this mooted the idea of the autonomy of electric media. This had actually followed the coverage of Gulf war in 1991 by CNN. People wanted to see more channels.

Vardan Committee In September 1991, the Narsimharao Government set up a Vardan committee, under K A Vardan, the additional secretary in I& B Ministry. This committee recommended that a second channel of Doorsharshan should be leased out in 4 metro and some FM stations should also be leased out.

So, now the Government was in dilemma. On the one side it was to liberalize the media, on the other side it did not want to lose the clutches over Doordarshan and Akashwani, which were actually a source of propaganda plus revenue for the Government. But the credibility of Doordarshan had already fallen and now it was to face the invasion of the global media. The Government could implement the Prasar Bharti Act, and infuse professionalism to bring back its credibility, but it was not done.

Finally Prasar Bharti came into being in 1997.

Recent Committee
In December 2013 GOI formed a committee headed by technocrat Sam Pitroda :

• to strengthen and expand the role of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, with an emphasis on its relationship with the government. 
• to review the current institutional framework of Prasar Bharati and would suggest measures to ensure technical upgradation of the organisation. 
• The committee will recommend the ways to digitise the archival material with Doordarshan and All India Radio, including material from Independence days, and develop enabling infrastructure, in the form of data digitalisation systems, data centres and networks. 
• It will also review the status of implementation of recommendations made by various committees that have undertaken studies on Prasar Bharati — the Sengupta Committee, the Bakshi Committee and the Narayanamurthy Committee — and suggest a road map for enhancing the reach and potential of the broadcaster.

Understanding the government control on Prasar Bharti
The Prasar Bharati board has a chairman and part-time members appointed by the Central government. Most of them are people from the 'intellectual' class who are close to the ruling party. Its full time members are all serving government employees and sent to Prasar Bharati on deputation.
According to a senior DD employee who just retired as a director with Prasar Bharati, except the CEO, all other employees are on deputation to Prasar Bharati from the I&B Ministry. Since these employees are still I&B Ministry employees, they actually listen to the government of the day.
The Directors General of DD and All India Radio (AIR) are also government employees. Normally, a senior IAS officer of an additional secretary rank heads DD as its Director General. The All India Radio Director General is normally a senior officer from the Indian Information and Broadcasting Service. All of them are controlled by the Ministry of Personnel. They are Prasar Bharati employees only on paper. In reality, there is no difference between them and other employees of the government.

Subjective Question:

Q. India's largest public broadcaster's autonomy is questionable. Comment.

MCQs:

Q. Which of the following statements are true:

1. The PMO appoints Chairman and the other Members, except the ex officio members, nominated member and the elected members.

2. B G Verghese Committee's main recommendation was "formation of Akash Bharti or the "National Broadcasting Trust", both for the AIR and Doordarshan.

3. Prasar Bharti is a constitutional body

4. PC Joshi committee was appointed to prepare a software plan for Doordarshan

5. In Dec 2013 a committee under Sam Pitroda was appointed to revamp Prasar Bharti

6. Lok Sabha TV, Rajya Sabha TV and Doordarshan are owned by Prasar Bharti

7. CEO of Prasar Bharti can be removed by a simple executive decision.

(Plz post your answers in comments section)

Source:

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/the-autonomy-of-prasar-bharati-is-still-a-joke/469302-37-64.html

http://www.gktoday.in/prasar-bharti-revamp/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasar_Bharati