Date:19/02/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/02/19/stories/2003021904391300.htm

National

DD ropes in private producer to cover Iraq crisis

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 18. Ill-equipped to cover war zones yet eager not to repeat the Afghanistan experience when it was caught napping as the U.S. launched the "war against terror" on the Taliban regime, Doordarshan has decided to engage a private producer to provide its viewers coverage of the unfolding Iraq crisis.

The Doordarshan Director-General, S.Y. Quraishi, told a press conference that Third Eye TV had been roped in to provide coverage of the Iraq story from the Indian perspective. Though Doordarshan had toyed with the idea of using footage of foreign news channels, the need to show the "Indian angle" apparently tilted the scales in favour of Third Eye TV.

While stating that "we hope and pray war does not take place", he said Doordarshan had signed a contract with Saeed Naqvi's production house for a half-hour slot five-days-a-week from Sunday to Thursday. As of now, the contract has been signed for 20 days. However, given the uncertainty, he said, a provision had been made for extending/curtailing the contract as the situation demanded.

Tentatively scheduled to go on air from February 25, the programme christened `Gulf War II: India cares, India counts' will present the unfolding story from Baghdad, Turkey, Jerusalem, Iran, Kuwait, London and Washington/New York.

As to why a private producer had been entrusted the task, Mr. Quraishi said Doordarshan did not have the expertise to cover a war. "After the embarrassment we faced over not covering the Afghanistan story, we decided to be well-prepared this time round. However, on realising that we did not have the necessary experience to cover such a story, we decided to give it to an outside agency."

Also, according to him, this made more business sense as Third Eye TV would be paid Rs. 5 lakhs for every half-hour slot and inputs for the daily bulletins. Of this, approximately 35 per cent was for uplinking. Doordarshan's contention was that it would have been far more expensive to move in its equipment to the various stations from where Mr. Naqvi's team would uplink.