Why Can’t DD Be Like BBC? You Wish…

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s annual speech broadcast live on state-owned Doordarshan (DD) has confirmed two facts that most educated Indians knew, though the government in power hoped they believed otherwise. That India’s public broadcaster neither aspires to achieve autonomy, nor does the government in power have any intention of relinquishing control over this institution.

As more facts emerge, the Union Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar had, it turns out, indeed “instructed” DD officials to run Bhagwat’s speech uninterrupted, an editorial treatment usually reserved for speeches of national importance by either the Prime Minister or the President.

Javadekar, according to a report in The Indian Express, had told Prasar Bharati’s CEO Jawhar Sircar and the newly-appointed Director General (News) Archana Datta that “he need not be asked repeatedly about the telecast and that Doordarshan should just go ahead and go live with the RSS chief’s speech”.

Interestingly, Sircar, who’s otherwise been quite vocal in raising the issue of DD’s autonomy in the past, has maintained a mysterious silence over this issue.

Not so long ago, when DD found itself embroiled in a controversy over Narendra Modi’s edited interview during the Lok Sabha election campaign, Sircar was quick to launch a scathing attack on the beleaguered UPA government for not allowing  autonomy in DD’s functioning. Explaining the Prasar Bharati CEO’s silence, one DD source said that “Sircar is a smart officer. He knows that he too is a UPA appointee and could be removed from his plum post if Javadekar has the slightest suspicion over his loyalty! He is in no mood to become another Neelam Kapur (former head of Press Information Bureau).” Neelam Kapur was shunted out of PIB in August this year.

Expectedly, the news of DD cutting live to Nagpur for Bhagwat’s entire speech sent social media into a frenzy, with most attacking India’s public broadcaster for caving in to the government’s diktat. Some asked if DD would extend this editorial treatment to equally controversial leaders from other communities known for their sectarian politics. Others concluded that this could never happen with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)– Britain’s iconic public broadcaster.

So, should DD attempt to be like BBC? Yes, it may be well worth the try! Can it ever be like the British public broadcaster? Not in the foreseeable future. Not until DD continues to be run by civil servants and not journalists. Not until the senior-most functionaries continue to receive editorial instructions from their political masters.

Javadekar had once talked about abolishing India’s I&B ministry. He need not resort to such a radical step. Instead, people would forever be indebted to him if he simply implemented the recommendations made by the Expert Committee on Prasar Bharati, chaired by Sam Pitroda. Most of its suggestions, if implemented, would be game-changers. The “BBC Model” recommended by them is the need of the hour both in terms of rationalising its workforce and developing new content strategy in a highly-competitive TV market.

The BBC Model will help the broadcaster secure much-needed credibility and protect it from being arm-twisted editorially by the government of the day. That’s not to say that the ruling party in Britain doesn’t try their luck with BBC from time-to-time. But each time they do, these attempts are met with utter disdain.

The biggest example of a full-blown war between the BBC management and the government was the Iraq War controversy in 2004. Greg Dyke, one of the most charismatic and popular Director Generals in BBC history preferred to quit rather than succumb to Tony Blair’s bullying tactics in the aftermath of the tragic death of Britain’s top scientist David Kelly.

Dyke resigned after BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan’s reports which claimed that Downing Street had “sexed up” a dossier on Iraq’s illegal weapons were branded “unfounded” by Lord Hutton.

Dyke stood by his reporter’s journalism and refused to apologise, as demanded by Tony Blair. He would be proved right in the time to come. Indeed, Iraq never had any smoking guns and Britain was never “Forty five minutes away from being attacked by Saddam” as Blair had claimed, in order to win support for military strikes against Iraq in 2003. The Dyke episode reaffirmed BBC’s editorial independence, sending a stern message to 10 Downing Street.

On another occasion in 2009, BBC invited then-leader of the far-right British National Party(BNP), Nick Griffin, on its flagship programme Question Time. BBC was merely fulfilling its mandate to provide equal prominence to political parties with a certain electoral representation, as the BNP had secured considerable share of votes in the local body elections. But even that decision sparked national outrage. However, to be fair to BBC, Nick Griffin’s Muslim equivalent, Anjem Choudhary – now in jail on terrorism charges – frequently appeared on various BBC programmes.

DD critics, who used Twitter and other social media platforms to lodge their protests against its decision to cover Bhagwat’s speech should have no problem if the channel also committed to prominently showcase other controversial leaders from various communities.

The Bhagwat episode, nonetheless, has highlighted a host of other issues that DD continues to grapple with, albeit ineffectually. Its approach both to coverage and distribution is nothing less than primitive. Where on earth would you find a serious broadcaster using .gov domain for its official website, which, in case you didn’t know, is www.ddinews.gov.in. Hardly great advertisement for a news network that aspires to be autonomous and wants to be taken seriously on the digital platform.

Then there’s the huge issue of efficiency and reach. DD’s total portfolios of 33 TV channels, 67 studios, more than 1,400 transmitters and a workforce of close to 40,000 people catering to just 1 crore homes is outlandish and unsustainable.

Compare that to BBC and one realises why DD has a very long distance to cover in order to emulate the success and reputation of its British counterpart.

BBC has 8 UK-wide TV channels, 10 UK-wide radio stations and a network of more local television and radio stations throughout Britain. It also has a raft of international interests and commercial enterprises. BBC’s domestic weekly reach to UK households is nearly  97 per cent of the total population and, on an average, a person consumes more than 19 hours of BBC content on multimedia platforms ( TV, radio, on-demand services, online and iPlayer) every week. This doesn’t include its global audiences, which reached a whopping 265 million this year.

You ask a DD executive if they’ve ever heard of terminologies such as “efficiency programme” and “value for money” and their reaction is worth noticing. Clearly, the starting point for the national broadcaster has to be the need to embrace these two steps on a priority basis. It’s astonishing that DD and All India Radio together employ close to 300 “consultants” who are paid anything between Rs 25,000 to Rs 200,000 as monthly salaries. Atrocious to say the least!

BBC core values promise to keep the audience “at the heart of” the corporation’s journalism. We all know who inspires DD’s journalism. And it isn’t the audience.

With the resources at its disposal, DD has the wherewithal to bring about the transformation it desperately needs to become a credible news brand both at home and abroad.