Prasar Bharathi is India’s largest broadcasting agency under
which All India Radio and Doordarshan operate. Recently, Prasar Bharathi has
threatened to cancel its subscription of the Press Trust of India (PTI), a news
agency, calling it anti-national. It has expressed ‘deep displeasure’ by
putting forward allegations that the recent coverage of PTI on India-China
crisis as ‘detrimental to national interest’ and that has undermined the
territorial integrity of India.
Wonder what alarmed this? PTI covered an interview with
China’s Ambassador to India, Sun Weidong who claimed that ‘onus’ of the
conflict at the LAC is not on China. It was also quoted as saying, ‘The Indian
forces seriously violated agreements on border issues between the two
countries.’ The said coverage has caused Prasar Bharathi to rethink on its tie
with PTI.
Does it not curtail the right to freedom of speech and
expression of the news agency? Is it not the job of the news agency to keep the
public informed about various angles of a crisis? Only that would balance a
news story. Although acting on professional duty, PTI has been slammed
‘anti-national.’ Notwithstanding that it was a coverage and not views or
opinion of the agency itself.
A toast to freedom of press!
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