Doordarshan Assistant Director Suspended For Refusing To Telecast PM Modi’s IIT Madras Speech On Its Tamil Channel

The Assistant Director (Programmes) of Doordarshan’s Chennai centre has been suspended with immediate effect by Prasar Bharti for blacking out Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s convocation address at IIT Madras, OpIndia has reported.

As Doordarshan is a state run broadcaster it is obliged to telecast the Prime Minister’s live speeches and does not have the freedom to not air it. The Doordarshan’s Tamil channel Podhigai TV though failed to carry it which was flagged by the Prime Minister’s Office.

As per reports, the channel chose to telecast Tamil songs and dramas while Prime Minister Modi was delivering his speech on the occasion of India-Singapore hackathon and the 56th convocation of IIT Madras.

This lack of telecast was despite the fact that as many as 16 crew members of Podhigai TV were live recording the Prime Minister’s speech at the venue.

After an inquiry was initiated, R Vasumathi was found guilty of this offence and has been placed under suspension, as per an order dated 1 October.