Over 2 years after it junked PTI subscription, Prasar Bharati inks deal with Hindusthan Samachar

More than two years after it cancelled its subscription to news agency Press Trust of India, state broadcaster Prasar Bharati has signed an exclusive two-year contract with the Hindusthan Samachar agency.

An agreement was signed in 2020 and officials said a “prior contract” was “renewed” this month, according to the Indian Express. Officials told the paper that the renewed contract entails a minimum of 10 national news items and 40 “local stories” in regional languages each day.

HS was set up in 1948 by Shivram Shankar Apte, a senior RSS pracharak who also founded the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and became its first secretary-general. It has seen a domination of people associated with the RSS, and its image has been that of an institution established on the ideology of the Sangh.

Newslaundry earlier reported how the Prasar Bharati decision to cancel its PTI subscription came a few months after it indicated the same over the agency running an interview of the Chinese ambassador to India which the government wasn’t pleased with. It also reported on Prasar Bharati’s tussle with PTI and how it seemed to be a part of the Narendra Modi government’s plan to manage media coverage. You can read some of it here, here and here.

Meanwhile, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday hit out at the Narendra Modi government over the decision while terming it “saffronisation of news”.