New Delhi: India’s public service broadcaster Doordarshan platformed Navnath Ban, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maharashtra ‘media cell’, as a non-partisan journalist to interview Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis soon after he was sworn in on December 5, 2024.
Right to Information replies by Doordarshan to The Wire say that Ban was allowed to interview the chief minister – and paid for it – as part of its “talent/artist” booking system”.
“Doordarshan has the Talent/artist booking system which can book various performing artists as per the fee structure, and thus under the guidelines of Talent booking system Shri Navnath Ban was booked as an interviewer for the interview,” Doordarshan said in its RTI replies.
The interview conducted by Ban of Fadnavis was also one of the first that the new chief minister gave to any media platform after he was sworn in on December 5, 2024. As expected, the nearly 18-minute interview lacked any semblance of neutrality and appeared to be a promotional interview for the BJP and the Mahayuti alliance.
The Wire’s RTI and responses by Doordarshan
On December 6, Ban’s interview with Fadnavis was broadcast at 6:30 pm on the DD Sahyadri channel, which operates under Prasar Bharati.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
