Prasar Bharati signs news feed deal with RSS-backed agency
The deal with Hindusthan Samachar was signed after the public broadcaster ended its subscription with the Press Trust of India in 2020.

India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has signed a two-year deal with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed news agency Hindusthan Samachar for its daily feed, The Wire reported on Saturday.
Prasar Bharati is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting which runs the Doordarshan and the All India Radio. Hindusthan Samachar was founded in 1948 by Shivram Shankar Apte, an RSS leader and a co-founder of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
According to its website, Hindusthan Samachar was set at a time when “the country needed a news agency that would not only cater news through its own languages but was also inspired, motivated and informed by a spirit of true Bharatiya (Indian) nationalism,” reported The Indian Express.
Hindusthan Samachar had been providing its wire services to Prasar Bharati for free since 2017 on an “evaluation basis”. As part of the new deal – signed for nearly Rs 7.7 crore – Hindusthan Samachar will provide at least 100 news stories every day to Prasar Bharati, including a minimum of 10 national stories and 40 stories in regional languages, reported The Wire.
The new deal comes two years after the public broadcaster had cancelled its subscription with the Press Trust of India – one of India’s leading news agencies.
In 2020, Prasar Bharati had termed PTI’s coverage of the border row between India and China as “anti-national”.
This was after the news agency had published an interview of former Chinese ambassador Sun Weidong, who had accused New Delhi of provoking the military clash in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in June 2020, which led to the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers. China put the number of casualties on its side at four.
Press Trust of India (PTI) has been in @narendramodi government’s crosshairs after it rebuffed @arunjaitley’s bid to install his man as Editor. Now, @prasarbharati, always his master’s voice, is apparently accusing it of “anti-national reporting”. Is this true, @PIBFactCheck? pic.twitter.com/nMGJ72vGHm
— churumuri (@churumuri) June 27, 2020
Prasar Bharati’s backlash against PTI could have also been associated with a separate interview the news agency did with Vikram Misri, New Delhi’s former ambassador in Beijing. The PTI had quoted Misri as saying that Chinese troops “needed to move back to their side” of the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, a statement that ran counter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that the troops did not intrude into Indian territory.
PTI had described the allegations of being anti-national as “unwarranted, unjustified and unfair”.
On Sunday, Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Gaurav Dwivedi told The Indian Express that Hindusthan Samachar was the only wire service that offers content in multiple Indian languages.
“We had a prior contract with Hindusthan Samachar, which was renewed this month,” he told the newspaper.
Several social media users, including Opposition leaders, activists and journalists criticised the Prasar Bharti-Hindusthan Samachar deal, expressing concerns that it would mean biased coverage by the public broadcaster in favour of the Hindutva ideology.
The move by @prasarbharati to make Hindustan Samachar, a news agency with links to Sangh Parivar, the sole news source for @DDNational & @AkashvaniAIR is an attempt to saffronize news and silence dissent. Secular and democratic forces must unite to resist such communal schemes.
— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) February 26, 2023
It's now official!
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) February 26, 2023
DD & AIR will exclusively broadcast as "news" only the content fed by RSS! Prasar Bharati has terminated its contract with PTI & engaged Hindustan Samachar established by Golwalkar & Apte, founder of VHP, to provide news feed. https://t.co/OPmPzLd12k
Finally. Best to merge Prasar Bharati and BJP. https://t.co/1cEE7IhF7F
— Jawhar Sircar (@jawharsircar) February 25, 2023
Independent &Rational is “ant-national” aka def of uoi/RSS” now misinformation is key to news! #FakeNews Prasar Bharati's News Feeds Will Now Rely on RSS-Backed Hindusthan Samachar https://t.co/p5cY3NhvKS
— Teesta Setalvad (@TeestaSetalvad) February 26, 2023
Prasar Bharati will now entirely rely on the RSS-backed news agency Hindusthan Samachar for its daily news feed.Prasar Bharati,which runs Doordarshan&AIR,has signed an exclusive contract with Hindusthan Samachar,after it cancelled its subscription with PTIhttps://t.co/KHJNkTI4Mm
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) February 25, 2023
In other news
— Sandeep Manudhane (@sandeep_PT) February 26, 2023
Prasar Bharati, which runs DD and AIR, has ended its news feed contract with PTI (India's biggest professional news agency).
Now news feed will come from RSS-backed Hindusthan Samachar, an outfit started in 1940s by someone who also co-founded the VHP.
Congrats!
Prasar Bharati, which runs #Doordarshan and All India Radio, has signed an exclusive contract with Hindusthan Samachar, backed by the #RSS. Prasar Bharati cancelled its subscription with @PTI_News, India’s largest professional news agency. https://t.co/6wzNsoi9ob
— Samar Halarnkar (@samar11) February 26, 2023