Government a crutch for Indian news bodies

An Indian international news agency envisioned by Jawaharlal Nehru on the eve of independence still remains unrealised.

What the Society of Indian Newspaper owners has given to free India in the last seven decades is a set of two news agencies — PTI and UNI — both with dwindling presence abroad and still relying on the government for their survival.

PTI was incorporated as a limited company by some newspapers on August 27, 1947, which in 1949 took over the operations of Associated Press of India (API), a residual of the colonial British transnational news agency Reuters.

The first Press Commission in its report in 1954 emphasised the importance of a second news agency to compete with PTI. Some other newspaper launched United News of India (UNI) in 1961.

Wire services’ dependence on government dates back to their infancy. Sardar Patel bailed out PTI in 1949 by persuading the ruler of Baroda to buy bulk of the 10,000 debentures of Rs 100 each, which PTI issued to pay Reuters for its global service.

The First Press Commission in its report in 1954 recommended various measures for helping PTI to improve its functioning, including increased payment by All India Radio (AIR) and an interest-free long-term advance by the government. But passed strictures against PTI’s “improper management”, “nepotism” and “laxity in the supervision of accounts”. As a result, the PTI board agreed to incorporate some eminent persons as members.

The Nehru government still provided a long-term interest free advance to PTI to construct a multi-storey building on the prestigious Parliament Street bungalow already in possession of the news agency. Later, the Rajiv Gandhi government helped PTI to computerise its operations. The Second Press Commission in its report in 1979, too, felt that “since news agencies serve not only newspapers but the wide public, we are of the view that there should be provision for public accountability”. That led to inclusion of a few small and medium newspapers on the PTI board. The First Press Commission also blamed the owners of news agencies for losses due to their “mounting subscription arrears”.

The Fact Finding Committee of Newspaper Economics in its report in 1975 also observed that “the amount of subscription paid by any individual newspaper to the news agencies represents only a very insignificant portion of its cost of production”.

UNI, facing financial constraints, too has been looking towards the government for assistance in the absence of any assets of its own and sheer apathy of its owners.

The two Hindi news agencies — Hindustan Samachar working since 1948 and Samachar Bharati launched in 1966 — died an untimely death after they were forced to merge with Samachar during the emergency.

Later, both PTI and UNI floated their respective language wings — PTI-Bhasha in 1986 and UNI-Varta in 1982. The UNI launched its Urdu service in 1992. The Urdu Promotion Council of the HRD ministry has been providing financial assistance to UNI-Urdu service for its survival. During the NDA government, the then I&B minister Pramod Mahajan proposed that Prasar Bharati, a statutory Public Service Broadcaster, being the single largest subscriber of the PTI and UNI service, should have a say in the board of directors of the two news agencies. But it was rejected on the ground that it will amount to government interference in the independence of two newspaper-owned news services.

Today, Prasar Bharati (AIR-News and Doordarshan-News) is paying Rs 9.15 crore to PTI and Rs 6.90 crore to UNI in addition to what the government’s publicity arm — the PIB pays to them. Many central government departments, as well as the state governments subscribe to the paid service of PTI and UNI adding a substantial amount of the taxpayer’s money to the two agencies’ revenue. An expert committee of the Prasar Bharati recently submitted a report on “rationalisation” of the news agencies’ subscription to AIR and DD and the Board is currently seized of the matter.

Ashok Tandon is a former diplomatic editor of PTI and currently a part-time member of the Prasar Bharati board