News Broadcasting
DD’s news correspondent freeze
NEW DELHI: Is state-owned broadcaster DD saddled with an ageing news correspondent network? If one goes by information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni’s admission in parliament, then this probably is true. She said that no appointments of news correspondents had been made in Doordarshan since the first selection of 51 persons to the posts of news correspondents, assistant news correspondents, and assistant news editors in 1988.
She added that a proposal for appointment of a principal television correspondent and two special news correspondents in Doordarshan and Recruitments Rules in this regard are pending before the finance and personnel ministries respectively.
Thus, the recruitment was made 15 years before the creation of Doordarshan News in 2003, and Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com that some persons have been appointed as
‘artists’ from time to time apart from Indian Information Service officers being sent on deputation to DD News. These sources said that at present, Doordarshan has two TV news correspondents, three assistant news correspondents, and 12 TV news correspondents deputed to
various regional kendras.
The 18 TV news correspondents, 27 TV assistant news correspondents, and six TV assistant news editors appointed in 1988 as artists were in May 1993 declared as government servants from the date of their appointment.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni also denied that the Ministry had furnished any undertaking about acceptance of the Joshi Committee of 1985 that had suggested creation of a separate cadre of news correspondents for the pubcaster.
When the Central Administrative Tribunal in Hyderabad had in November 2000 on a petition filed by one correspondent directed Prasar Bharati to induct the applicant in the Indian Broadcasting (Programming) Service, the Government had challenged this decision in the Hyderabad High Court and obtained a stay in April 2001 and the matter was still pending and therefore, sub judice.
The Government, however, claimed that assured career progression had been given to all eligible officers. Meanwhile, it is learnt that subsequent to the Joshi Committee report of 1985, the Urmila Gupta Committee had also recommended creation of a separate cadre for news correspondents. It had opposed the merger of news cadre into the Indian Broadcasting (Programming) Service. This service provides for programme management cadre and programme production cadre in All India
Radio and Doordarshan.
Earlier in February this year, a parliamentary committee in a strongly-worded report regretted that no recruitment has been made in the Indian Broadcasting (Programme) Service, started in 1990, to train a separate cadre of employees for All India Radio and Doordarshan.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
