India’s eye on the world
Amita Malik

FOR years the Indian electronic media has been dependent on foreign sources for foreign news. And for regular Indian news or news concerning India from abroad we get very cursory coverage but for the honourable exception of two stalwarts, Saeed Naqvi and Prannoy Roy. Naqvi has anchored the longest running programme of its kind on Doordarshan and Prannoy Roy’s The World This Week also originated on DD but closed down when he left the channel. For the rest, DD’s coverage was and remains pathetic. AIR correspondents with no training in television double as TV correspondents. And this work too is monopolised by print journalists mostly from the Press Information Bureau and allied government offices with no connection with TV. When Bhaskar Ghosh was DG of Doordarshan and later secretary to the ministry, he saw the injustice that was being done to DD’s news correspondents, some who like Rudra Sanyal were specialised in fields like defence. He also recruited and trained younger people. But soon it was back to square one. The pathetic standard of reporting was revealed during the PM’s visit to Turkey and the UN, when DD’s correspondent came across with poor technical quality and a thick accent which made it impossible even for a seasoned watcher to make out what he was saying. Besides, AIR and DD correspondents accompanying VVIPs abroad get official lodging as well as priority in interviews. Private channels and the press come after the government media in the ranking list. With the government rushing to install a pliable news channel for the forthcoming elections at the expense of its successful Metro entertainment channel, the same old mistakes are being made all over again. And the sufferers will be DD’s professional news staff who will lose out again to outsiders with political clout and, of course, the viewer for whom Prasar Bharati cares two hoots as long as the political bosses are happy. As for the independent channels, their correspondents either accompany the PM and other VVIPs on a short-term basis for their trips abroad or send correspondents on equally short trips when some event takes place abroad. But the regular Indian media correspondent abroad is still hard to come by and not in the same class as some Indian newspaper correspondents.

Which is why one is glad that the timely revival of The World This Week is spreading its wings every week with increased field reporting from abroad. Last week, Prannoy Roy was in New York speaking at length on the American scene with the Indian perspective in mind; Shivraj Prasad was in Israel and Palestine; Sutapa Deb was in Thailand. And you have NDTV repeating the same two or three correspondents, who seem to star in everything. They monopolise the scene, even when they are not specialists like Ajai Shukla. The lengthy narration for the New York story was done by Vishnu Som, who has come to the top amazingly as newscaster, anchor, defence specialist and with an eye for culture, all of which he does with cool assurance and, when needed, a sense of humour. I have spent so much space on the need for India doing its own news gathering and dissemination abroad after I watched with horror a caption on CNN which dismissed the attack on the Andhra Chief Minister and his colleagues with a line at the bottom of the screen: "Indian officials attacked in Andhra Pradesh, with minor injuries."

It was Puja-Dasehra time and for those of us who could not make it to Ramlila Grounds, Chittranjan Park and their equivalents all over the country, it was a joy to sit in front of the TV set and watch everything in comfort. Every channel tried to outdo the other while some preferred to keep things within bounds on some very politically newsy days. But for covering the Dasehra fireworks at Ramlila Grounds, I give the top prize to Zee News, which doggedly covered it from start to finish and their largely boring commentary was wiped out by some first-rate camerawork and sound by its technical crew which showed a high degree of news sense, catching the delighted children in the crowd and other interesting details rather than focusing unduly on VIPs.

Typically, when the news was broken about the murderous attack on the Andhra CM and his colleagues, the inexperienced anchors and newscasters mostly at the Aaj Tak studio behaved in the same irresponsible and mindless way that they did with the Bombay blasts. They asked impossible, mindless and ignorant questions and, worse still, wasted the precious time of busy officials on duty such as the chief of police or local administrators. Some of the inane questions asked within minutes of the event were: who did it, what was used, when do you hope to catch the culprits, how serious are the injuries. Some irresponsible interviewers think the longer they detain the police and others on duty by asking the same stupid questions, the better their "exclusives". I think the officials are far too patient and polite and in future should say firmly, "Sorry I have to rush to work now," even if some persistent correspondent might be too thick-skinned or ignorant to take the hint.