<p>The Prasar Bharati Board had not approved a letter written by its head of news service to the Press Trust of India (PTI), terming it "anti-national" and <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/prasar-bharati-threatens-to-cancel-pti-subscription-over-anti-national-reporting-854513.html" target="_blank">threatening to discontinue</a> subscribing to the country's prominent news agency for interviewing the Chinese ambassador, an RTI reply has revealed.</p>.<p>In June, Prasar Bharati News Service head Samir Kumar had written to PTI saying that the "recent news coverage" on the India-China border row was detrimental to national interest and undermining India's territorial integrity. He had also said that the Prasar Bharti had alerted PTI on editorial lapses that were detrimental to public interest.</p>.<p>Responding to transparency activist Venkatesh Nayak's RTI query, the Chief Public Information Officer said, "as per available record, during the calendar year 2020, matter under reference did not come to the Prasar Bharati Board before issuance of communication being referred to."</p>.<p>The Prasar Bharati also said that “all the agreements/contracts are finalised between Prasar Bharati Secretariat and the news agencies and (news services) division has no role to play.”</p>.<p>Nayak had sought responses on eight points, including whether the letter had the approval of the Board, the communication to PTI regarding its "editorial lapses" and the criteria to evaluate PTI's news coverage.</p>.<p>Except for the one query on Board's decision, all other queries were transferred by Prasar Bharati to All India Radio and Doordarshan.</p>
<p>The Prasar Bharati Board had not approved a letter written by its head of news service to the Press Trust of India (PTI), terming it "anti-national" and <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/prasar-bharati-threatens-to-cancel-pti-subscription-over-anti-national-reporting-854513.html" target="_blank">threatening to discontinue</a> subscribing to the country's prominent news agency for interviewing the Chinese ambassador, an RTI reply has revealed.</p>.<p>In June, Prasar Bharati News Service head Samir Kumar had written to PTI saying that the "recent news coverage" on the India-China border row was detrimental to national interest and undermining India's territorial integrity. He had also said that the Prasar Bharti had alerted PTI on editorial lapses that were detrimental to public interest.</p>.<p>Responding to transparency activist Venkatesh Nayak's RTI query, the Chief Public Information Officer said, "as per available record, during the calendar year 2020, matter under reference did not come to the Prasar Bharati Board before issuance of communication being referred to."</p>.<p>The Prasar Bharati also said that “all the agreements/contracts are finalised between Prasar Bharati Secretariat and the news agencies and (news services) division has no role to play.”</p>.<p>Nayak had sought responses on eight points, including whether the letter had the approval of the Board, the communication to PTI regarding its "editorial lapses" and the criteria to evaluate PTI's news coverage.</p>.<p>Except for the one query on Board's decision, all other queries were transferred by Prasar Bharati to All India Radio and Doordarshan.</p>
