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The Prasar Bharati
Corporation has decided to merge the news division of Doordarshan
and All India Radio to create an understanding and synergy between
two of them. The attempt is also seen as a trial to improve the
news content of DD and AIR.
Harish Awasthy
who was the Director General (News) of Doordarshan will now be the
head of the news divisions of both DD and AIR. Harish Awasthy is
also in charge of the DD News channel and DD’s Kashir channel.
With the combined operations of both these organisation’s news
divisions, all the officials of the respective news divisions will
be under the direct supervision of Awasthy.
All India Radio
has about 250 reporters in different parts of India. Doordarshan,
on the other hand has a good number of editorial staff in New Delhi.
The idea is basically to create a synergy between the two organisations,
so that the news content improves considerably. All India Radio’s
foreign correspondents have already started working for DD also.
The leading
media training organisation Thomson Foundation has been hired by
Prasar Bharati to train reporters and editors of the news division.
The experts of Thomson Foundation will also train the All India
Radio reporters how to work with the visual media, namely Doordarshan.
DD officials
say that if BBC and ABC could do it, so can the Prasar Bharati.
BBC had integrated its radio and television team successfully and
the BBC model was followed by the Australian Broadcasting Foundation
(ABC) and the Canadian Broadcasting Foundation (CBC). The senior
officials and some staff of the DD News and its DD News channel
who have offices in DD’s headquarters at Mandi House will be
shifted to Aakashvani Bhavan in Delhi where most of the studios
and staff of both radio and TV news divisions are placed. Some of
the studios of DD’s News are also at Central Production Unit
(CPU) in Asiad Village, New Delhi.
Prasar Bharati
had recently announced that the DD News channel would be off the
air by November and a revamped DD News channel would come up in
which a share of the news would be not more than 30 per cent and
the rest of 70 per cent slots would be reserved for art, culture,
youth-related stories.
—Amitabh
Parashar
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