The Hindu : Central monitoring agency to be out of AIR

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 16, 2003

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Central monitoring agency to be out of AIR

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI FEB. 15. After toying with the idea for well over a year, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry appears to have decided to take the Central Monitoring Services (CMS) out of All India Radio (AIR) and turn it into an `independent' media unit under its direct control. Its mandate is seemingly being rewritten to fit the requirements of intelligence agencies.

The changeover is slated for April 1. But, for CMS, the change is not limited to getting out of the `autonomous' Prasar Bharati setup and becoming a part of the Government. Though initially aimed at giving the Government direct control over an organisation that monitors India-related despatches on overseas news broadcasts in view of the country's growing `geo-political' importance, the mandate of CMS is also being rewritten as part of this exercise.

From being an "open monitoring service'' which keeps a tab on overseas public broadcasters, CMS will now be expected to monitor requirements of intelligence agencies in addition to its earlier tasks.

This could include not just broadcasts put out by small radio stations, but also other security-related despatches.

In fact, the Ministry officials said that several meetings were held over the past months during which Home Ministry, Intelligence and RAW officials were asked to spell out their requirements. Apparently, there was also a suggestion to involve intelligence agents in the monitoring process.

The move to bring CMS under the direct control of the Ministry was suggested by the Group of Ministers on Security as its reports were of greater use to the Ministries of External Affairs, Defence, and Home than AIR which had little use for them, save as a source of news from areas where the public broadcaster did not have its own correspondents.

Always a unit of AIR, the bid to take CMS — which traces its roots back to colonial times when the British set up the first unit in Shimla to monitor radio coverage of World War II — its mandate has been growing over the recent years; particularly with the boom in the electronic media after which it has had to keep a watch on whether the private channels are subscribing to the programming and advertising code.

However, given the current pre-occupation of the powers that be with security issues, there is an apprehension within the Ministry that intelligence work would get priority under the new regime and the CMS could end up becoming an "appendage of intelligence agencies''.

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