Journalists and Employees of Prasar Bharati have condemned the former CEO Jawhar Sircar’s tweet in which he questioned the integrity of the national broadcaster.
A press statement signed by employees and journalists was released in which the Broadcaster denounced former CEO’s defamatory assertions against the channel after the current CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati’s passed up an offer to attend an event hosted by BBC, citing its “one-sided” reportage of the communal violence in Delhi as a reason for declining its invite.
Calling out International Media’s biased and fake reportage on the Delhi Riots incident, the press release by Prasar Bharati’s employees read, “The prejudiced International Media had deliberately purveyed Fake News surrounding the Delhi riots. It is, therefore, a matter of pride and honour for us Employees/Journalists at Prasar Bharati that the chief executive Shashi Shekhar Vempati rejected the offer made by the BBC and drew its attention towards its biased reporting in the case, especially highlighting its provocative reportage against the police officials and law enforcement personnel who put their lives on the line to perform their duty.”
The Press Release further said that it is unfortunate that the former CEO Jawhar Sircar, instead of standing beside the organisation he once served, insulted the organisation by disparaging it on its current stand against BBC’s deliberately falsified reportage on the Delhi riots.
Earlier, following Vempati’s refusal to attend the BBC event, Sircar took to Twitter to allege that Prasar Bharati has turned into BJP’s Prachar Bharati, calling into question Prasar Bharati’s probity and moral ethic.
Prasar Bharati is now completely BJP’s Prachar Bharati! https://t.co/JtHte0PxrT
— Jawhar Sircar (@jawharsircar) March 5, 2020
BBC and other International Media ran a slanted version of the Delhi riots last month, painting the ghastly Riots as a state-sponsored pogrom of Muslims in the country’s capital. The riots, which took place in north-east Delhi, saw widespread violence against Hindus, their settlements, their source of livelihood and their places of worship. However, the International Media swept under the carpet attacks on Hindus to project that only Muslims were victims of the riots.
The Prasar Bharati CEO, Shashi Shekhar Vempati, cited BBC’s incorrect and profoundly misleading reports on Delhi riots to reject the offer to attend a program hosted by the BBC. However, this did not sit well with the former CEO Jawhar Sircar, who raised aspersions on the integrity of the organisation, calling it BJP’s mouthpiece.
It is noteworthy to mention that while Sircar questions Prasar Bharati’s integrity, his own conduct as former CEO wasn’t very exemplary. Years after he had resigned from the organisation, Sircar wanted Prasar Bharati to officially defend him in the District and Sessions Court, Haveri, Karnataka, which had issued a summon to him in a case filed by Mahesh Joshi, former Additional Director General of Doordarshan. Joshi has accused several Doordarshan officials of filling a false sexual harassment case against him, after charges against him were found fabricated by Delhi Police and Delhi High Court. Prasar Bharati had rejected his request to defend him officially in the court.
