Rajat Sharma re-elected as NBA president

NEW DELHI: India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma was re-elected as the president of the National Broadcasting Association (NBA) at its 13th annual general meeting. The board has elected News24 Broadcast India Ltd chairperson-cum-MD Anuradha Prasad as its vice president, and Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd - Times Network MD and CEO MK Anand as honorary treasurer for the year 2020-2021.

Accepting the charge, Sharma said in his address, “I would like to thank Mrs Annie Joseph, secretary-general, NBA for her efforts in ensuring that the objectives and initiatives of the NBA are achieved and implemented. I would also like to thank the staff of the NBA Secretariat, legal counsel, financial and corporate consultants as well as the auditors of NBA and bankers for their valuable time and cooperation.”

He also spoke about BARC’s decision to hit the pause button on TRP measurement for news channels. “NBA has welcomed the decision of BARC to suspend the measurement of television viewership ratings of news channels for a period of twelve weeks. I have said in my statement that the corrupted, compromised, irrationally fluctuating data is creating a false narrative on What India Watches and has been putting pressure on our members to take editorial calls that run counter to the journalistic values and ideals of journalism. The current atmosphere of toxicity, abuse and fake news is no longer tenable and NBA as the custodian and guardian of Indian broadcast media believes a bold step of putting ratings of news genre on hold will help in improving the content. I would urge all the members broadcasters during this twelve-week period to take all the necessary steps to improve the content of their channels and move away from the tyranny of ratings and ensure that the independent self-regulatory model adopted by the news broadcasters is vigorously supported and its decisions adhered to by all of us.”

He added, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Prakash Javadekar, secretary and officials in the ministry of information & broadcasting and the TRAI for their continued understanding and support on issues which confront us. Since 2008, our self-regulation initiative has been a source of pride for us. On behalf of the NBA board and on my own behalf I would like to place on record our sincere gratitude and thanks to the chairperson and independent members of the NBSA for their support, invaluable guidance and time.”

The other members on the NBA Board are: -