Ambika Soni talks on Indian media 'off the record'

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In an exclusive interaction with CNBC-TV18 for Vir Sanghvi's show Off The Record, Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ambika Soni spoke about the ailing Doordarshan and the Indian media industry.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview. Also watch the accompanying video. 

Q: Let me start with the mess in Doordarshan. It is part of your Ministry. It is a channel that is effectively on its deathbed. It is not taken seriously by people. It is not watched by people and it's a mess of internal politics. Are you at all concerned?

A: Firstly, I think you are overdoing it slightly. Probably you mean Prasar Bharati. Prasar Bharati has not only Doordarshan but there are 31 channels.

Q: And there is also Akashwani, which is also a mess?

A: Akashwani and Doordarshan-they have about 31 channels today and they all come under Prasar Bharati, which is totally autonomous. So while we can say that I am answerable in Parliament for Doordarshan-Akashwani and Prasar Bharati as whole-but they are under an act of Parliament totally autonomous.

But being the poky nose, that I am, I started calling and meeting people and said, "Your shows must be more watchable." Even if it's social messaging, I don't see why you cannot have a watchable programme on women's empowerment.

Q: What about DD News? It started with a lot of promise but it has the air of a low rent operation produced by students of a small town media school isn't it?

A: I think you haven't watched DD News for quite while really. DD News has taken a few strides towards improving its performance and its formatting. Lot of people have been coming and telling me that they watch DD News when they want to get to real news without-all that breaking news fanfare etc.

Q: But surely there is something to be concerned about?

A: There has been lot of a problem in the functioning of Prasar Bharati as whole, which has about 15 members on the board.

Q: But is it true that there are about 11,000 vacancies in Prasar Bharati that are unfilled?

A: Yes. That's what they projected-11,000 plus-but all of them cannot be filled because there are government rules, which don't allow recruitment.

Q: But in a country where there is unemployment-where people are looking for jobs and media is sort of a desirable career-you have 11,000 vacancies?

A: Yes. It is not that we cannot find applicants or people to man them but the rules are such that they have banned recruitment. What's alarming for me at least is that the government has allocated so much money for all our border areas where we have towers already in place. I am told that they don't have engineers and they don't have staff to keep even a watch.

Q: I gather in the border areas-where we should be putting our stuff out-Pakistan TV (PTV) comes in very easily and our own stations and transmission towers are unmanned or non-operating?

A: That is something, which I can't just understand and I have told them that, "Why don't you outsource them?" Even the engineers can be outsourced from amongst the retired army personnel. There is some kind of a malaise I feel-I shouldn't say it myself-but we are trying to get over it. We have four new members on the board.

Q: I want to talk a little bit more about corruption. The DD Kashir channel is frequently accused of corruption. There are criminal cases-there are CBI enquiries from all accounts. About Rs 100 crores have been lost. Are you concerned?

A: Of course. One has to be concerned even if Rs 1 crore is lost and is concerned but it is not that hundred of crores that have been lost. They have been advertising wrongly. They have been calling for producers when they should be calling for directors. They should be deciding on what themes will be best suited for viewership in Jammu and Kashmir.

They just take any old things and start distributing them like peanuts like 4 you take, 6 you take and they have identified something like 7,000 producers. Naturally, when you downsize that number there is going to be disappointment-a lot of wrong people.

I have appointed a consultant a couple of months ago, especially for DD Kashir and DD Bharati. These are two channels, which I have taken even though I am not under the Act of Parliament supposed to be doing anything directly. But I am not going to be deterred by that. I have appointed a consultant. We have been taking lot of presentations and I do hope in a couple of months. We should have both these channels working as you and I would like them to.

Q: What about corruption? Are you concerned about those charges?

A: There is Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) inquiry going on at the behest of the Supreme Court (SC) and High Court have passed strictures. I would imagine if there were such strictures one would step aside and say, "Let my name be cleared." But those things sometimes don't happen and they are not happening. So while the powers, which have to investigate, are investigating-we are going on trying to evolve a system.