Prasar Bharati tweets on WSJ journalist latest in its criticism of ‘biased’ foreign press

Prasar Bharti has time and again accused foreign media of “biased” and “fake” reportage, with CEO Vempati saying such coverage creates wrong perception of India. 

By
Amrita Nayak Dutta
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Prasar Bharati House in New Delhi | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint
Prasar Bharati House in New Delhi | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: Prasar Bharati’s tweets Friday that the South Asia Deputy Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, Eric Bellman, was being deported for “anti-India behaviour” is only the latest in its recent onslaught on foreign publications over what it claims is their “biased” or “fake” reportage on India.

The tweets were taken down after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) denied initiating any such action.   

But over the last few months, Prasar Bharati, the parent body of state-owned broadcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio, has aggressively and repeatedly taken on multiple foreign publications on their reportage of incidents within India, many of which evoked global interest, such as the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, the Ayodhya verdict, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and more recently, the riots in Delhi last month.

The organisation, through its digital arm Prasar Bharati News Services (PBNS), has attacked even premier foreign publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian (UK) and Le Monde (France) that have all published highly critical reports of the Modi government. 

The PBNS has also regularly been reporting on complaints against foreign media houses.

For instance, it recently tweeted an “exclusive” thread about doctors at the LNJP hospital in Delhi junking a Huffpost India article during the Delhi riots last month, calling it baseless and communally coloured. The piece had accused doctors at the hospital of having discriminated against victims of a community during the riots. 

Another example was its tweet on a complaint filed against Al Jazeera for “publishing a distorted map of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh”. The tweet came with a hashtag #NewsJihad.

It had also in November last year warned The Guardian against provoking communal hatred in India during the Ayodhya verdict. 

The public broadcaster’s stance against the alleged “one-sided” coverage of India by foreign press was also reiterated when Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati had in the first week of March declined the BBC’s invitation to attend the ‘BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year’ awards night, on the grounds that the British broadcaster’s coverage of the recent Delhi riots was “without context” and insinuated “communal behaviour”.    

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What about neutrality?

Prasar Bharati’s stance has raised questions of neutrality, which a public broadcaster is otherwise mandated to exercise in reportage. 

In a scathing attack on the organisation, its former CEO Jawhar Sircar, referring to Vempati turning down the BBC invite, called it the “BJP’s Prachar Bharati”. 

A senior journalist, earlier associated with the BBC, told ThePrint that it is not Prasar Bharati’s job to comment on a foreign publication’s editorial policies or how it should cover an event. The Prasar Bharati Act, he added, does allow the broadcaster to air programmes that “uphold the unity and integrity of the country and the values enshrined in the Constitution”.

“A foreign media would not do that with Prasar Bharati or an Indian media house,” he said, referring to the PBNS, which is a newly set up digital arm of Prasar Bharati. 

“It reiterates that Prasar Bharati is the government’s mouthpiece and not an independent broadcaster like the BBC,” the journalist added.

Such reporting creates wrong perceptions abroad: Vempati

Prasar Bharati CEO Vempati, however, strongly defended the broadcaster’s strategy to speak up on the global media’s reportage that it deems is biased or fake.

“Prasar Bharati is not one service, channel or social media handle,” Vempati said.

“Let me put this in perspective. Our network of Twitter handles is nearly 300. Our collection of YouTube channels is close to 70. It would be wrong to draw conclusions based on any one handle or channel.”

Vempati also said the Prasar Bharati’s twitter handle does not just criticise foreign media, but also shares their tweets, particularly during important news breaks.

“A number of tweets of foreign media are curated and shared almost everyday, through PBNS, whenever there is an international breaking news. If someone actually counted, they would see a very high ratio of sharing as compared to criticism,” he said.

He said the broadcaster engages with the foreign media at multiple levels, such as direct sharing of content as was done during the recent visit of US President Donald Trump when all major US networks and the European Broadcast Union carried DD India’s live feed. 

“Secondly, there is engagement through multilateral fora such as the Asia Pacific Broadcast Union (ABU) where we share daily content from DD News and DD India via an internet-based content-exchange platform,” he said.

“Thirdly, on a pilot basis we are exchanging news content with certain international wire services,” Vempati added.  

“We also are engaging with the media through a new scan show on DD India that airs on weekends. I also personally reach out to several India-based and India-focused foreign correspondents,” he said. “So, I would say this has to be viewed in totality as our global engagement as India’s public broadcaster.

“The multi-pronged approach is an effort to ensure that all facts are shared and media outlets are sensitised so reportage is balanced,” Vempati said, adding that there have been some instances of fake news too, but with most reputed organisations “it has been a case of lack of balance in reportage where one-sided narratives have been advanced”.   

“Also, these media are substantially influential both within India and outside India. Hence it is odd that domestic developments in India have become a focal point for such intense reporting by the foreign media,” he said.

Asked if Prasar Bharati has the mandate to call out foreign publications to defend what India would like to project to the world, Vempati said Section 12 subsection 2(a) of the Prasar Bharati Act spells out its charter. “You will see that foremost is India’s national unity and integrity,” he said.

“PB is also proud of the fact that we are also enabling citizens to obtain a vast diversity and plurality of opinion through the DD Free Dish DTH by enabling free-to-air access to over 15 private news channels that also compete directly with the public broadcaster,” he said. 

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