Censorship – News Media/Documentaries

A question by a Rajya Sabha TV anchor to a studio guest about Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 1942 undertaking that he would not participate in any anti-British movement so angered Vice President Venkaiah Naidu that the channel was forced to run an apology while the anchor herself was issued a reprimand and taken off air.

One month later, the anchor, Neelu Vyas, a veteran who is third in the channel’s hierarchy, remains benched. The relevant clip was also excised from RSTV’s YouTube channel so that it does not show up in internet searches. If the action against Vyas is a reminder of the politically fraught circumstances under which journalists at the parliamentary channel have been working since Naidu became vice president, the fact that the unprecedented reprimand came barely two weeks after she had complained about a senior RS official repeatedly messaging her and interfering with her work and also making “sexually coloured remarks” has also made present and past employees see red.

The channel is “owned” by the upper house of parliament and answerable to Naidu but has an editor-in-chief and CEO who are responsible for its day-to-day functioning. Rajya Sabha secretariat officials are not meant to interfere in editorial matters.