<p>BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Saturday expressed concern that public broadcaster Doordarshan was struggling to maintain its professional freedom.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"We have witnessed the horrors of the emergency when freedom of press and freedom of expression were suppressed. It is a blot on our democracy. On days such as this, I feel very sad to see our national TV channel struggling to maintain its professional freedom," Modi wrote on his Twitter handle.<br /><br />Greeting journalists on World Press Freedom Day May 3, the Gujarat chief minister said a free press was a democracy's cornerstone and must be preserved in letter and spirit.<br /><br />His comment came after Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, in a hard-hitting letter Friday, acknowledged that certain portions of Modi's interview to Doordarshan "were apparently edited".<br /><br />Sircar, in the letter to the Prasar Bharati board, also pointed a finger at Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant the public broadcaster "operational autonomy" that it has been seeking for years.<br /><br />Doordarshan and All India Radio function under the Prasar Bharati board.<br /><br />Pleading ignorance about the letter, Tewari told IANS: "I have not seen the letter. It was not addressed to me, so how am I supposed to comment?"</p>
<p>BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Saturday expressed concern that public broadcaster Doordarshan was struggling to maintain its professional freedom.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"We have witnessed the horrors of the emergency when freedom of press and freedom of expression were suppressed. It is a blot on our democracy. On days such as this, I feel very sad to see our national TV channel struggling to maintain its professional freedom," Modi wrote on his Twitter handle.<br /><br />Greeting journalists on World Press Freedom Day May 3, the Gujarat chief minister said a free press was a democracy's cornerstone and must be preserved in letter and spirit.<br /><br />His comment came after Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, in a hard-hitting letter Friday, acknowledged that certain portions of Modi's interview to Doordarshan "were apparently edited".<br /><br />Sircar, in the letter to the Prasar Bharati board, also pointed a finger at Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant the public broadcaster "operational autonomy" that it has been seeking for years.<br /><br />Doordarshan and All India Radio function under the Prasar Bharati board.<br /><br />Pleading ignorance about the letter, Tewari told IANS: "I have not seen the letter. It was not addressed to me, so how am I supposed to comment?"</p>