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Media monitoring service likely to shift to PIB
The government is planning to shift the media monitoring service
from Prasar Bharati to the Press Information Bureau (PIB),
according to sources. Set up in the early 1940s to monitor
foreign radio stations during the World War II, the monitoring
service has been a part of the Prasar Bharati in the recent
years.
When contacted, P Majumdar, Director of the monitoring cell
based at Aya Nagar in New Delhi, declined to comment on whether
the monitoring service is being shifted to the PIB or not.
However, government sources have confirmed that a decision
to that effect has already been taken.
The move is significant in the sense that it is expected to
give more teeth to the PIB, which is among the government
media units recommended for closure by the Geethakrishnan
report on expenditure reforms. The move to shift the media
monitoring service to the PIB is in sync with the recent remark
made by the Prime Minister, A B Vajpayee, that a plan must
be chalked out to suitably revamp all instruments of publicity
including the PIB. Even the Information and Broadcasting Minister,
Sushma Swaraj, has gone against the Geethakrishnan report
and reiterated time and again that the government media units
should be revamped and not shut down.
With the media monitoring service coming to the PIB, officials
say, the PIB is expected to have a greater role as a publicity
outfit of the government. Add officials that Prasar Bharati,
being an autonomous body, has no obligation to serve the government.
Therefore, there’s no sense in the media monitoring service
remaining with Prasar Bharati, explain officials.
The monitoring cell has been in news recently for keeping
a hawk’s eye on the controversial FTV channel and other
private channels airing liquor advertisements. But says an
official at the monitoring cell that it was set up in Shimla
in the early 1940s to monitor foreign radio stations during
the war. "The purpose was to monitor the anti-India propaganda
on those radio stations."
Later in the ’80s, the cell was shifted to Delhi and
it started monitoring foreign TV channels as well. Even in
Delhi, the thrust of the monitoring service was to keep a
vigil on the foreign radio and TV channels for anti-India
propaganda. "Monitoring of channels such as FTV is only
a one-time exercise for us," an official says.
Nivedita
Mookerji
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