NEW DELHI: The foreign news agencies Deutsche Passes Agency (DPA) of Germany and Associated Press (AP) of the USA have approached the information and broadcasting ministry for permission to transmit their news items directly to their subscribers rather than relay them through the Press Trust of India (PTI) and United News of India (UNI) as at present.
Both UNI and PTI have expressed concern over any move to liberalize the 1955 information policy as this would seriously affect their financial viability. It was decided in the policy that news from foreign agencies would be filtered so that national interests were not subverted The policy was formulated in the wake of the Cold War and was meant to ensure that India did not become a battle ground for conflicting ideologies.
Sources in the ministry said that the request of the foreign news agencies followed an agreement between PTI and Reuters (of Britain) under which Reuters can transmit its complete news service to clients who want the full service and not just the items which PTT selects and incorporates into its own The agreement allows Reuters to relay its service by whatever means are most appropriate. Among them are clients who have sought the entire Bazar Patrika group of Calcutta.
At present the PTI circuits are technologically the most appropriate for relaying the service. But
At a later date a direct satellite up-link may prove technologically feasible and at that stage PTI will stand to lose the revenue that now accrues to it from relaying the service.
UNI also has an agreement with AP whereby it relay the entire news service to clients such as the United States information Service the American Embassy and large newspaper groups like The Times of India and The Telegraph. It has resisted all attempts to permit a direct transmission of news by foreign wire services to Indian clients according to sources.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 7, 1992
