Its a fact. A country as small as Azarbaijan has its state run media in more than 50 offices around the world but a country as large as India with a population of 1.22 billion (total population of Azerbaijan 9,165,000), 125 times bigger than Azarbaijan, technologically much superior and vast human resource does not have its offical media offices anywhere in the world except in countries like Nepal,Sri lanka, Bhutan, Burma, informed SM Khan DG Doordarshan.
This can give us a fair idea as to how serious is our government in propogating and popularising the reach of national broadcasters in the world. BBC, Xinhua, CTV, CBS, CABC, MediaCorp, France Televisions are public broadcasters that have offices around the world.
In a candid talk with Director General Doordarshan News SM Khan, FacenFacts got an insight into some facts about Doordarshan and the man behind the organisation. A highly distinguished bureaucrat, 1982-batch IIS officer, had a long innings with CBI as its spokesperson and Press Secretary to then President A P J Abdul Kalam.
During his nearly 13 years service in CBI, he was the face of the premier investigating agency which at that time had been handling several high-profile cases including Harshad Mehta finance scam, Hawala scam, Rajiv Gandhi assassination besides others.
Khan had also served government of India's film division as Director for two years.
When FnF asked him about Doordarshan's credibility, quality of programmes and inspite of the huge resources, infrastructure, technology and reach DD lacking the acceptability factor, the problems that DD was plagued with and the changes required Mr Khan said lots was required to change. 'In principle DD is not directly under the government now. It has turned into a Corporation under the control of Board, the Prasar Bharati. It is neither government nor public sector. Its a diiferent kind of set up in which Prasar Bharati has all board members appointed by the Government of India acting through the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
'It is one of the largest and only public broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. The DD provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional India, as well as overseas through the Indian Network and Radio India.
'DD has 31 channels in 11 languages. In terms of reach DD is the most widespread. Both terrestrial and satellite technologies are used by DD.
'But funds are a major problem. Doordarshan is a brand in itself but lack of right publicity has made DD less competitive as far as other channels are concerned.Though we are not in the race with private channels but I agree that we lack the acceptability factor in urban areas. Quality of programmes also need improvement to be at par with private channels. DD is not into glamourising.'
He said, 'All the existing media houses started with programming with DD and reached where they are today and we are still running on the same track. Being under Prasar Bharati the government funds DD apart from the revenue collected from programmes and production. DD needs funds for restructuring for better in terms of quality and also publicity.
'While it earns significant advertising revenue due to the compulsory feed given to it by the highest bidder to national events including cricket tournaments, there has been a proposal to give it funds by imposing a license fee to own a television in India like the BBC. However this is unlikely to be imposed keeping in view the financial constraints of the average Indian.Doordarshan has posted losses for several years despite being granted exclusive access to several events including cricket matches and having the largest terrestrial network in the country.
Khan know and is aware of problems that are plaguing DD and has taken initiatives to bring about changes in Doordarshan in his capacity but it is yet to be seen when will DD come up to the expectations of their dedicated viewers.
With his wide experience of handling media as spokesperson of CBI, Press Secretary to the President of India and DG Directorate of Film Festival and now as head of DD News his experiences have been very enriching, so he says. FnF asked him to enumerate some instances that were senitive to be handled he readily agreed pondering a little. ' My experineces were great'. He said, 'Generally journalists report on isssues very responsibily and fairly. I have never had any issues with media. I have had many occassions to interact with media in my official capacity as spokesperson of CBI. Each word said there was valuable and keeping the sensitivity of each case in mind we had to handle it accordingly. Slightest of misrepresentation could make things worse. Media reports factually and instances of misreporting are not generally there except if it is intentional or with ignorance which is again rare.
'There have been many interesting and testing instances. How things are presented is important. It was twice, both related to then PM, during PV Narsimha Rao's regime. You may recall Hawala diary scam. When Parliament saw an uproar on Narsimha Rao's name occuring in the Hawala diary with Atal Bihari Bajpai asking the PM whether his name actually figures in it Narsinha Rao did not give satisfactory answer. Coming out of Parliament he was faced with journalists over the issue of Narsimha Rao's name in Hawala diary he diverted and said the CBI will be able to tell the press better. Media came knocking at the CBI headquarter immediately. To defuse the situation I had to issue a statement saying that the matter is under investigation and they will be apprised as and when the verdict is out.'
'The second instance also was when Narsimha Rao was PM. In a case the CBI court had passed a bailable warrant against PM. Bailable warrant is a legal term between investigating agency and accused. Persuing the bailable warrant, for a fraction of second the accused was to be taken into custody and then released on bail. It was not right to put it across in a straight way as the person in question was the Prime Minister of India, the statement issued was 'Procedure of the court was followed'.
Khan is not in favour of any guidelines for media. As Supreme Court is considering making guidelines for reporting on subjudice matters he said, 'There needn't be guidelines for media. Freedom of Press is important in democracy.'
On the question of Censorship in films, and why was Dirty Picture screening on national TV cancelled at the last moment, he said there is no censorship as such and there cannot be one in these times of free media. As for Dirty Picture it was actually the High Court order that was lying pending and was passed that day itself that effected the cancellation at the last moment.
How did he effect the betterment of Film Directorate he reflected that my tenure in Film Directorate was extremely memorable and good. 'We were able to organise Indian Film festivals off shores as well as in unusal places like Kohima, Bhopal etc. This was never done before. I worked towards pacing up of the National Film awards that had piled up of many years and were lagging behind. So after holding 2 award ceremonies in a years time now the awards are in time.'
His views on the controvertial sub quota for muslims in jobs and education not being a priority in the community he said the sub quotas will not make much of a difference. 'You see there is a reason behind this. During partition the muslim middle class migrated to Pakistan from India so the ones left were either the rich and elite or the lower poor strata. These classes did not emphasise on education as the affluents were already affluent and the poor were not interested in education. That is why their generations in India were left uneducated. But now with globalisation awareness has seeped in. With the coming of multinationals and big companies in the market and job opportunities opening up muslims too are taking education seriously and have started doing well.'
FnF wanted to know his views about PM being under Lokpal. 'The Prime Minister should be kept out of it because it will hamper his functioning and send wrong indication not only in the country but all over the world. It is not that the PM is free from law and investigation agencies. Even now under the procedures the PM can be investigated.'
Is media being supressed in West Bengal? Can states have their own channels? Khan said, 'There needn't be any other state media when a national agency like DD already exists which takes care of national and state interests equally. All regional news are covered by DD as much as national news.
SM Khan goes out of his way to help people in need. He comes out as an affable and extremely polite gentleman. 'Social service is where my heart is. I would like to help people as much as I can. Many times people come with needs and want help. Medical facilities in the country are still not available in many villages and remote places. I would like to do my bit for the society in which I live. Maybe after retiring I would get more time to involve myself with people.
Khan belongs to a family of lawyers. He studied law for his graduation and pursued LLM from Aligarh University. He later went to University of Wales for a degree in Economics. His career ambition- wants to see himself some day posted in PMO.
