National

Commercial TV criticised for ‘dumbing down’ news

NEW DELHI: Commercial television came in for sharp criticism on Thursday during a discussion on the future of public service broadcasting. While Prasar Bharati was accused of being the handmaiden of the government, the audience ire was directed primarily at commercial television for “dumbing down” news and catering only to the middle class.

Organised by the BBC World Service as part of a series of programmes it was producing to mark its 75th anniversary, the majority view at the discussion on ‘Is there a future for public service broadcasting’ was that neither Prasar Bharati nor commercial television channels in the country were offering any public service broadcasting in the real sense of the term.

However, at least two speakers — N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, and the former India correspondent of the BBC, Mark Tully — were of the view that Prasar Bharati would change for the better over the next decade-and-half. According to Mr. Ram, the public broadcaster would improve because people would not put up with the kind of fare it was offering for long.

While Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer B.S. Lalli maintained that the future of public service broadcasting was bright in a country as diverse as India, Mr. Ram said the problem with the public broadcaster was its manipulative framework laid by the British. Mr. Tully said the condition of commercial television demonstrated the need for public service broadcasting.

Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN argued that commercial channels provided more public service broadcasting than both Doordarshan and All India Radio. Conceding the profit-motive that drives commercial television, she said this, however, did not prevent networks from doing robust adversarial journalism. Moderated by BBC’s Owen Bennett-Jones, the discussion also saw a demand from both the audience and the panellists for allowing news on private radio stations. Reacting to a demand from a Radio Mirchi representative for news on FM to provide variety to programming, an anthropologist in the audience wanted to know what stopped radio stations from providing alternatives to film and popular music.

The discussion was one of three debates that the BBC is organising across the globe to commemorate its 75th anniversary; the other two will be recorded later in New York and Cairo. Called “Free to Speak,” the series will explore censorship, political and economic pressure on media, and the impact of new technologies on access to and dissemination of information.

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