DD News prime time: Funded by the public, against the public

When state broadcaster DD News introduced its saffron logo in April this year, it promised to prioritise accuracy, facts, and truth over speed, claims and sensationalism. “Because if it is on DD News, it is the truth.”

But its primetime show seems to have completely missed that marketing pitch. 

Over the last few months, Do Took, hosted at 9 pm by Ashok Shrivastav, has repeatedly seen divisive remarks, sensationalist debates, and discussions framed against civil liberties with little space for public interest issues.

Prima facie, this is in violation of the channel’s responsibilities as outlined by its governing body, Prasar Bharati, whose 20-point programme code explicitly prohibits content that contains attacks on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which promote communal attitudes. 

Between July 1 and August 30, Newslaundry tracked 42 segments of Do Took to assess whether critical public issues such as corruption, unemployment, education, inflation, and crimes against women and minorities had received any adequate coverage in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha elections. We placed these segments under four categories: public interest, anti-opposition, communal polarisation, and misinformation, and disinformation.

This analysis was based on identifying the most prominent topic, examining the anchor’s statements, and the agenda driving the discussions. By evaluating these elements, we grouped each telecast according to the main theme and the overall message it conveyed.

A majority of these segments were anti-opposition (59.5 percent), followed by misinformation and disinformation (28.6 percent), and communal polarisation (7.1 percent). Only two segments, or 4.8 percent of the total, focussed on public interest (those two also in the context of opposition-governed states).

Communal polarisation

Three segments, or 7.1 percent of the total shows analysed, had hateful communal themes. 

On July 2, a show titled ‘Hinduo par prahaar, vipaksh ka vyavahar, desh bhulega nahi’ focussed on Rahul Gandhi’s remarks against the BJP in parliament, where he had said that “Hinduism was not about spreading fear, hatred and falsehoods”.

The debate had four panellists: Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ashok Yadav, political analyst Rahul Lal, senior journalist Awadhesh Kumar and BJP MLA Shalabh Mani Tripathi. When Ashok Yadav tried to explain Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, Shrivastav launched a tirade, telling Yadav to have the courage to ask about the versions of Islam understood by Asaduddin Owaisi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Jinnah and terrorists. Shrivastav then interrupted Yadav over a dozen times, asking, “Chaliye bataiye Islam kitne tarike ka hota hai?”

In a show on “love jihad” on July 31, Shrivastav cited “demography change in many states” as a “big problem” for the country while discussing Uttar Pradesh’s new anti-conversion law.

On August 15, in a discussion on the Uniform Civil Code, Shrivastav urged the need for a “secular civil code”, mentioned by PM Modi in his Independence Day speech. He claimed minor girls were being married off in the name of Muslim personal board and Shariah.