News Broadcasting
Cyrus Broacha to moderate Clinton Q&A show on MTV
MTV anchor Cyrus Broacha is slated to moderate an hour long programme which will have former US president Bill Clinton among other panelists who will take questions from young adults from over 25 countries on the global AIDS epidemic.
The MTV special, titled Staying Alive: A Global Forum on HIV/AIDS, will be taped on 11 July in Barcelona and will be telecast from 12 July onwards on more than 30 MTV channels around the world. The special, says the channel, is part of a new youth-oriented AIDS awareness campaign MTV is launching in conjunction with the Kaiser Family Foundation and Family Health International.
Joining Clinton on the panel will be Peter Piot, head of the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, Brazilian Health Ministry official Paulo Roberto Teixeira and Vicki Ehrich of British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline Plc.
The former president, an honorary co-chairman of the International AIDS Trust foundation, first appeared on MTV during his initial bid for the White House in 1992, when he appeared on a town hall-style special in which he played his saxophone and gamely answered questions about what sort of underwear he wore. He later credited the MTV appearance with helping energize young people about politics and went on to unseat Republican incumbent President George Bush in the general election.
The special show is the second in a series of “social awareness” specials MTV has aired this year. In February 2002, the channel organized “Be Heard: An MTV Global Discussion With Colin Powell,” a forum that had young adults across the world shooting questions at the US secretary of state.
News Broadcasting
Rajesh Sundaram joins NDTV Profit as senior editor, assignment
The 32-year newsroom veteran has launched channels on three continents and covered everything from 9/11 to South African television
MUMBAI: NDTV Profit has bolstered its newsroom with a hire who has done rather more than most. Rajesh Sundaram, a journalist with over three decades of editorial, managerial and consultative experience across India and international markets, joins as senior editor, assignment, tasked with sharpening the network’s newsgathering and real-time response.
Sundaram’s career reads like a tour of Indian media’s most formative moments. He began at Businessworld in 1994, moved to Zee News as bureau chief across Mumbai and Chennai, then joined NDTV in 2002 as part of its political bureau during a particularly febrile period in Indian politics. A stint as India correspondent for Al Jazeera International followed, where he covered key geopolitical developments and got his first serious taste of the global newsroom.
What sets Sundaram apart, however, is his serial channel-launching habit. At NewsX, he helped get the operation off the ground. At Headlines Today, part of the India Today Group, he served as editor. At News Nation, he helped launch the Hindi news channel and its digital ecosystem. He then crossed continents to lead the launch of ANN7 in South Africa as editor-in-chief, overseeing both television and digital. Back in India, he launched Tamil news channels News7 Tamil and Cauvery News, and later served as principal consultant for the launch of Marathi channel Lokshahi. Most recently, he helped build and lead the Press Trust of India’s video service and content studio, before stints consulting for Business Today and The Himalayan Times.
Rahul Kanwal, chief executive and editor-in-chief of NDTV, left little doubt about what Sundaram is expected to deliver. “The assignment desk is where a newsroom’s intent becomes action,” he said. “Rajesh brings a rare combination of field experience and leadership in building news operations at scale.”
Sundaram has reported from across India and the world, covering elections, civil conflicts, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 US presidential election.
At NDTV Profit, he will lead the assignment desk, driving editorial coordination and real-time response across markets and breaking developments. For a business news network sharpening its focus on speed and multi-platform delivery, it has hired a man who has built newsrooms from scratch on three continents. The assignment desk is in good hands.
