New Delhi: Prasar Bharati, the country’s state-owned broadcasting station, will now be entirely dependent on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed news agency Hindustan Samachar for its daily news feed. Prasar Bharati, which runs Doordarshan and All India Radio, has signed an exclusive contract with Hindustan News. Be aware that Prasar Bharati canceled its subscription with the Press Trust of India (PTI) in the year 2020.
According to The Wire, Hindustan Samachar has been providing free services to Prasar Bharati since 2017. Both parties made a formal agreement on 9 February 2023. Prasar Bharati has signed this contract for two years i.e. March 2025. For this, the Government Broadcasting Center will pay about Rs 7.7 crore to Hindustan Samachar.
In the agreement with Hindustan Samachar, it has been said that Hindustan Samachar will have to give at least 100 news items per day to Prasar Bharati, which will include at least 10 national news and 40 local news in regional languages.
It may be noted that Prasar Bharati has taken this step after the Modi government at the Center had a bitter relationship with the Press Trust of India and the United News of India (UNI) over the past few years. Sources in Prasar Bharati said that the government had directed the public broadcaster in 2017 to terminate the services of traditional news agencies. Behind this, he cited ‘unreasonable’ subscription fees.
Sources also add that the central government felt that both PTI and UNI used to report ‘one-sided’ news and the government wanted a news agency that would project only a positive image of the government.
