Kejriwal, Bhushan to start 'non-profit, public service' TV channel

Anti-corruption activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan are planning to launch a television channel, which they say, will be non-profit and will focus on public issues.

He indicated that the channel would not just be confined to people from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), but would be a representative of people interested in public issues. “It won’t be AAP's channel, but will belong to a broader group. We are facilitating the formation of a public service broadcaster,” Bhushan explained.

Bhushan was silent on the names of the people who are to be associated with the channel. “We are creating a team and we have to organise the funds. It will take some time,” he said.

“We have always felt that the country needed a good public service broadcaster. As a broadcaster, Prasar Bharti has failed to achieve the purpose for which it was set up. So, the idea was to facilitate setting up an alternative,” said Yogender Yadav, political analyst and AAP member.

“Besides, there is an acute need for a media which is not dependent on advertisement revenues and on profit making. That is the whole idea which is behind this proposal,” said Yadav.

The leaders of AAP are denying that the channel would have political affiliations, it is common for political parties to own TV channels as is the case of Jaya TV belonging to the AIADMK and Kalaignar TV owned by the DMK in Tamil Nadu. Congress owns the Jaihind channel in Kerala while Kairali TV is associated with the Left in the state.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/754-kejriwal-bhushan-to-start-non-profit-public-service-tv-channel.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/754-kejriwal-bhushan-to-start-non-profit-public-service-tv-channel.html