The Prasar Bharati board never approved of the strongly-worded letter which the head of its news service sent to PTI in June, terming it “anti-national” and threatening it with financial sanctions for interviewing the Chinese ambassador to India.
[The Press Trust of India is India’s largest news agency and began operations in 1949. It is owned by 99 media organisations and remains a major source of information for most print, electronic and digital media groups.]
The letter from PB's news service head Samir Kumar to PTI chief marketing officer had termed PTI's "recent news coverage" detrimental to "national interest and undermining India's territorial integrity".
The letter said: "It is also mentioned that the PTI had... been time and again alerted by the Public Broadcaster on editorial lapses resulting in dissemination of wrong news harming public interest." Finally, it cautioned that "taking into view in totality PTI's conduct, Prasar Bharati is reviewing the need for continued relationship with PTI and a decision in this regard will be conveyed Soon".
The news agency had also earned the rage of right-wing commentators for running a tweet with a quote from India’s ambassador in Beijing which said Chinese troops needed to move back to their side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
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