Reports emerged late last week saying that news agency Hindusthan Samachar would replace Press Trust of India (PTI) as the official news feed source for Prasar Bharati, India's state-owned public broadcaster.
Prasar Bharati, which includes Doordarshan and All India Radio, had discontinued the services of PTI back in 2020, saying that there was no formal contract with the agency since 2006.
The Wire reported on February 25, 2023 that an "exclusive contract" was signed between Prasar Bharati and Hindustan Samachar on February 14. It further said that the Hindusthan Samachar was providing wire service to Prasar Bharati without any fees since 2017.
The fresh contract designates Hindusthan Samachar as the official news feed source for Prasar Bharati up until March 2025 at a fee of nearly Rs 7.7 crore for the period of 25.5 months.
Here is all you need to know about Hindusthan Samachar being taken as Prasar Bharati's news feed source:
What does the contract say?
According to the 11-page-long contract, accessed by BOOM, Hindusthan Samachar will need to give at least 100 news stories daily that includes at least 10 national news stories and 40 local stories in regional languages. Regional languages, as per the contract, include Bangla, Marathi, Assamese, English and Nepali.
"Hindusthan Samachar shall ensure timely delivery of its news services under the agreement so that the supplied material may get included in major news bulletins of the day without getting stale or dated," the contract, signed by Prasar Bharati Deputy Director Jagat Singh Chauhan, says.
The Indian Express quoted Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO of the Prasar Bharati, as saying that the Prasar Bharati had a contract with Hindusthan Samachar since February 2020 and was only renewed this month.
BOOM tried reaching out to Dwivedi. However, he refused to comment on the development.
What is Hindusthan Samachar?
Hindusthan Samachar is a multilingual news agency founded in 1948 by SS Apte, who also founded the right-wing organisation Vihsva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in 1964. "Thinker (late) Shivram Shankar Apte, who was involved in preparing the fertile ground of Indian thought-view amid western influence, had established the Hindusthan Samachar news agency," the wire service says on its website.
It further says that Hindusthan Samachar has 22 bureaus and correspondents at 600 locations across the country. Hindustan Samachar's website claims that it is the top news agency with "highest number" of subscribers in the country and provides wire services to hundreds of news organisations. It operates in several languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Telugu, Odia and Marathi.
The 'About Us' section of the website says it provides services in six languages to the "prestigious DD News and Akashvani".
"The role played by Hindusthan Samachar in protecting democracy during the emergency is our golden history," the agency says on its website.
Till April 1976, Hindusthan Samachar, alongside PTI, United News of India and Samachar Bharathi, worked as independent news agencies. During the Emergency, the four wire services were merged into one called 'Samachar' and was put under the supervision of a police officer. "However, in April 1976, at the Government's behest, the four news agencies agreed to merge into a single agency known as Samachar. The initial aim of Samachar was to tone up coverage of developmental news and exchange news with Afro-Asian countries breaking the monopoly of western news agencies," says VM Mishra in 'The Hindi Press in India: An Interpretative History'. The four agencies split again two years later in 1978.