NEW DELHI: Officials of Doordarshan and All India Radio belonging to the Indian Information Service (IIS) are increasingly resentful about interference by the Research & Analysis Wing (Raw) the Government’s super-secret service.

Officers of the NS (a service similar to the IAS) are particularly upset that the intelligence agency is vetting news reports an action which they term a gross infringement of editorial freedom.

An NS veteran said that while Government interference has been a constant problem since 1969 meddling by RAW has made matters worse.

For instance all news items relating to Afghanistan have to vetted by RAW. The vetting authority is an AIR officer according to a specific Evening Service Report of June 26 (the latter is a set of instructions which suffers cannot violate when on late night duty). This vetting authority say staffers gets instructions from the condominium of mysterious buildings in the CGO complex on Lodi Road. For the coverage of events in Afghanistan including the aftermath of the fall of President Najibullah a staffer from Lucknow was brought to Delhi briefed and sent to Kabul while experienced Delhi based AIR staffers were sidelined.

Neither the vetting authority nor the staffer who went to Kabul had any experience in reporting from Afghanistan

Much the same thing happens to reports from Sindh. The dissent in the Pakistani province is played up on the official media. All coverage from Sindh is sourced to the same official and is issued as a “handout” which cannot be altered or even edited. No record is kept of the “handout” whereas in the case of other news items records are meticulously maintained.

Interestingly the official concerned is based in Delhi and has no experience of reporting from Sindh.

It isn’t only foreign reportage which is vetted by RAW. An analysis of newspaper reports from Punjab-known reporters must similarly be cleared by a senior AIR correspondent

NS officers are also perturbed over what they see as attempts by RAW operatives to “recruit” them by offering them foreign postings. One staffer revealed that the intelligence agency had approached some of them through intermediaries.

A senior editor point out that such infiltration of the information service by an intelligence agency makes the entire organization suspect. “I don’t want to suffer from the stigma that I ever worked for RAW” said a Doordarshan staffer who added that though only a few persons may have agreed to work for RAW they would give the entire service a bad reputation.

Even the mere suspicion of convert association with intelligence operatives according to staffers undermines the interests of the service. They cite the example of an AIR staffer who was expelled from Sri Lanka last year while reporting a crisis the Premadasa Government was then faced with Sri Lanka security authorities suspected that the news report had emanated from RAW operatives. This might not have been the case but AIR did suffer a loss of face. The fallout of this incident has also affected us. Sri Lankans have now refused to accept our representative” revealed a staffer.

Interaction between RAW and the official media seems to be a regular affair. A Doordarshan staffer from the information service who had reported brilliantly on India’s armed intervention abroad has now gone on deputation to the intelligence outfit.

Similarly another official who spent over a decade in the Cabinet Secretariat under which RAW function now holds dual charge in the Information & Broadcasting Ministry. Two posts were recently upgraded in the J&B Ministry.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 31, 1992