NEW DELHI: Senior journalist A Surya Prakash has been appointed the chairman of the Prasar Bharati Board, succeeding Mrinal Pande whose term ended around six months earlier.

The appointment, which will be for three years, was made on the recommendation of a three-member committee headed by Vice President M Hamid Ansari and comprising Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju and Information and Broadcasting Ministry secretary Bimal Julka.  

Pande completed her tenure on 30 April this year. 

The pubcaster, which was created by the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 but notified in 1997, is governed by the Prasar Bharati Board, which comprises a chairman, an executive member (chief executive officer), a member (finance), a member (personnel), six part-time members, a representative of the I&B Ministry and the directors general of All India Radio and Doordarshan as ex-officio members.

The chairman is a part time member. 

Prakash has vast experience of both TV and print media. He has held key positions in several print and electronic media organisations.

He was editor of Zee News; executive editor of the Pioneer; India editor of Asia Times which is a business and political daily published from Bangkok and Singapore; political editor of the Eenadu Group of Newspapers; and chief of bureau, Indian Express, New Delhi.

He is also known for his well-researched interventions on national political issues. He is the founder-director of the Film and Media School at the Institute of Integrated Learning in Management, New Delhi, and founder-director of the Pioneer Media School. 

Prakash is currently consulting editor of the Pioneer newspaper and a distinguished fellow at Delhi-based Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), a think tank with which National Security advisor Ajit Doval was also associated earlier.