Delhi HC issues directive to Prasar Bharati on PIL against closure of National Channel

Dec 9, 2020
New Delhi: In an important development, the Delhi High Court has directed the Prasar Bharati to treat the issues raised in a PIL against closure of its national channel as a representation and decide it as expeditiously as possible.

The petition had been moved by All India Radio Casual Announcers and Comperes Union and AIR Broadcasting Professionals Association, inter alia, against the arbitrary closure of National Channel (the only national public broadcasting of the state), its 5 regional academies and several other broadcast and relay stations of the All India Radio, including the strategic World Services.

Akash Vashishtha, Advocate and Counsel for the Petitioners, submitted that the said National Channel and other Broadcast services have been shut down arbitrarily and irrationally.

“The Prasar Bharati is under a duty under Prasar Bharati Act, 1990, to organise and conduct public broadcast.

The World Services have been delinked from the studios and instead shown as small time You Tube programmes, which were much inferior in quality, ” he told the court.

“As compared to BBC and CNN, which draw lakhs of viewers and likes, the World Services of AIR are not able to hold even 20 viewers from across the world, ” Vashishtha argued.
-INDIA NEWS STREAM