On the face of it, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s advice that Central and state governments should not run their own television channels or get into the business of distribution of television signals is sound enough. As Trai points out, broadcasting should ideally be in the hands of the people, not of governments.
It’s still a given that Doordarshan is not quite as autonomous as the Union government would like us to believe. It does not have independent editorial control, like the UK’s BBC, which is a more effective model of autonomous broadcasting, although faults are also routinely found in its work by watchdogs. Nor are political parties banned from owning channels in India.
Where the recommendation may hurt is in denying governments the right to get into the business of distribution. Take, for example, the Tamil Nadu government’s Arasu Cable TV, which distributes television signals at a nominal cost to the public and which will be hurt by the Centre’s refusal to grant it a licence on these grounds. The larger public interest served by beaming television signals at an economical rate, sometimes as low as `75 a month, is not to be forgotten lest free market forces continue to grab the opportunity to make money. Arasu Cable’s application to beam digital signals is not without its merits.