Afghan war: DD remains mute spectator

Nivedita Mookerji in New Delhi

Public broadcaster Doordarshan has not been able to send a correspondent to the war zone yet, even as most private news channels of the country have registered their presence at the Afghan border. Now with the US and allied forces having launched air strikes in Afghanistan, DD is still caught in the process of getting bureaucratic clearances for sending its teams to the war region.

According to a source, DD has lined up its own teams for covering the war, but it hasn’t got the requisite clearances so far. The various destinations that DD is eyeing to send its teams include Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and even Iran. But says the DD source that being a public service broadcaster, all its teams need to be cleared by the Ministry of External Affairs. And this clearance is a lengthy process, he adds.

As there’s no question of going via Pakistan, DD is trying to get clearances for all the countries—Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran—simultaneously, so that there’s no hurdle at a later stage, says the source. While it’s a tough procedure for the official press, things are somewhat simpler for private channels, he adds.
Interestingly, faced with a visa hurdle to Pakistan, DD was even contemplating sending its team by road earlier. But even that arrangement didn’t work out for DD.

However, in the new scheme of things, Prasar Bharati has immediate plans of sending All India Radio’s Dubai-based correspondent Ramji Tripathi to Uzbekistan to cover the war. Under the DD-AIR synergy arrangement, whereby resources of the two organisations are to be shared for cost-effectiveness, this AIR correspondent will give phonos to DD as well. Since there’s no cameraman with this correspondent, DD will continue to depend on visuals sourced from CNN or other agencies.

As for the status of sending its own teams, DD officials don’t know as to when they can take off for the war zone.

The process of government clearances and visas began around two weeks ago for DD, and it’s not over yet. ‘‘Could be any time now,’’ is all that DD is saying. Anyway, the only saving grace for DD seems to be President Bush’s statement that it’s going to be a long war.