THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of the Express report on the Doordarshan Kendra(DDK) Thiruvananthapuram’s attempt to sabotage full live coverage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting at Kozhikode beach on September 24, Prasar Bharati Corporation has sought a detailed report from the DD officials in Kerala.
Jawahar Sarkar, Prasar Bharati CEO, has sought a report from Doordarshan Director General Supirya Sahoo, according to sources. Express had on October 13 reported that a section of the pro-Left senior DD staff had purposefully sabotaged the full live coverage of the PM’s rally at the venue of the BJP national council meeting when the entire country was eagerly awaiting his response to the Uri outrage.
Further, sources said the DG, News, had called for the entire recorded footage of the PM’s programme, which the broadcaster had covered on September 24 and 25. Besides, Prasar Bharati sought the minutes of the Programme Division meeting held on September 21 and a scanned copy of the transmission log book.
The Programme Division chief has also been summoned to New Delhi.
The Express write-up had said that some of the senior officials in DDK, Thiruvananthapuram, owing allegiance to the CPM, had gone to the extend of demanding payment for covering the PM’s programme on the grounds that it was a political function. Reacting to the issue, BJP state spokesman J R Padmakumar said the party took a serious view of the issue since the DDK Thiruvanathapuram officials had deliberately ignored the Prime Minister’s programme.
“We have taken a very serious view of the matter. I will take up the matter with Union I&B Minister Venkaiah Naiduji during my visit to New Delhi next week.” “The DDK officials had been reluctant to telecast the Centre’s programmes beneficial to the people and were also denying screen space to BJP-related programmes. They are loyal to the CPM,” Padmakumar told Express.
Change in mindset
Apparently feeling the heat following the Prasar Bharati intervention, all senior DDK officials in Kerala had rushed to Kochi to make their presence felt during the entire stay of Union I&B Minister Venkaiah Naidu here. Not only that, they deployed sufficient manpower with DSNG(Digital Satellite News Gathering) facility to ensure full live coverage of the minister’s function instead of the usual practice of
sending the backpack facility.