RTI for Doordarshan and All India Radio: Accessing Public Broadcaster Records

India's national public broadcaster occupies a position unlike any other media organisation in the country. Prasar Bharati — the statutory body that runs Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) — is funded by public money, operates television and radio services across the entire country, generates hundreds of crores of rupees in advertising revenue annually, and employs thousands of people across production centres, transmitter stations, and regional offices from Srinagar to Thiruvananthapuram. It is also, unambiguously, a public authority under the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Yet RTI applications to Prasar Bharati are relatively uncommon compared to applications filed with ministries, public sector undertakings, and educational institutions. This is partly because the broadcasting domain is not well understood as an RTI domain — people know they can use RTI to ask about a government scheme or a tender, but the idea of filing RTI against Doordarshan to ask about advertising rates or programme contracts does not occur to most citizens. This guide is intended to change that.

Prasar Bharati as a Public Authority Under Section 2(h)

Prasar Bharati was established by the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990. Parliament enacted that statute to create an autonomous public broadcasting corporation that would operate the national television and radio services previously run directly by the government. The Corporation formally came into existence in 1997.

Under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, a "public authority" includes any authority or body established or constituted by or under a law made by Parliament. Prasar Bharati was established by a law made by Parliament — the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990. It is, therefore, a public authority under the RTI Act without any qualification. It has all the obligations of any other public authority: to designate a Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) and a First Appellate Authority; to respond to RTI applications within 30 days under Section 7(1); to proactively disclose information under Section 4; and to face penalties under Section 20 for wilful non-compliance.

This matters for a reason that is frequently misunderstood: Prasar Bharati's statutory autonomy under the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 does not affect its RTI status. The Corporation is autonomous in the sense that it is not under the day-to-day control of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. But autonomy from ministerial direction is a different thing from exemption from the RTI Act. No such exemption exists. Prasar Bharati is in the same RTI position as the Food Corporation of India, the Life Insurance Corporation, or any other statutory body created by Parliament.

RTI applications to Prasar Bharati — whether concerning Doordarshan or All India Radio — are filed at rtionline.gov.in, the central government RTI portal. The application fee is ₹10 under the RTI (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005. BPL cardholders are exempt from paying this fee under Section 7(5) of the RTI Act. The response is due within 30 days under Section 7(1); in matters involving the life or liberty of a person, the proviso to Section 7(1) requires a response within 48 hours.

The Distinction Between Prasar Bharati and Private Broadcasters

One of the most important points in understanding the scope of broadcasting-related RTI is the distinction between public and private broadcasters. It is a bright line with significant practical consequences.

Prasar Bharati — which operates Doordarshan (DD National, DD News, DD India, DD Bharati, and dozens of regional Doordarshan channels) and All India Radio (with its network of national, regional, and local radio stations) — is a public authority and is subject to the RTI Act.

Star India, Zee Entertainment, Sony Pictures Networks, Network18, Sun TV, and every other private broadcaster is not a public authority under the RTI Act. Private broadcasting companies are incorporated as private limited or public limited companies under the Companies Act. They are not established by or under a law made by Parliament or a state legislature. They are not substantially financed by the government. They are not subject to the RTI Act. A citizen cannot use the RTI Act to ask Star India about its programming costs, ask Zee News about its editorial standards, or demand that a private news channel disclose who paid for a particular advertisement.

The only avenue through which RTI reaches private broadcasters is indirect: by asking the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting — which is a public authority — what regulatory decisions it has taken in relation to a particular broadcaster, what licence conditions apply, or what complaints it has received and processed. But that is an RTI to MIB about its regulatory functions, not an RTI to the private broadcaster itself.

This distinction also means that RTI is not the right tool for challenging a private channel's editorial decisions, questioning the fairness of private news coverage, or obtaining a private broadcaster's financial information. Those concerns must be addressed through other mechanisms — the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) for self-regulatory complaints, or the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for regulatory matters within its remit.

What RTI Can Reach at Prasar Bharati

Prasar Bharati's obligations as a public authority are extensive, because its administrative footprint is large and its use of public resources — both money and airwaves — is substantial. Here is what RTI can legitimately access:

Advertising contracts and revenue. Doordarshan and All India Radio generate significant revenue by selling advertising time on their channels and stations. The contracts for advertising — who bought time, at what rate, for which programmes, for which time slots — are administrative records that Prasar Bharati maintains in the ordinary course of its operations. Rates for different categories of advertising, the total advertising revenue generated in a financial year by specific channels or stations, the criteria used to set advertising rates, and the process by which advertising agencies are empanelled are all accessible via RTI. For journalists investigating whether government advertising is being steered towards or away from particular networks, or whether Prasar Bharati's own advertising revenue is being properly accounted for, these records are of considerable value.

Programme production costs and contracts. Prasar Bharati commissions a large volume of programming from external producers — serials, documentaries, news programmes, educational content, and regional-language programming. The contracts for externally commissioned programmes, the rates paid to production houses, the criteria used to select external producers over in-house production, and the actual expenditure on programme production are public procurement records. They involve the spending of public money and are therefore fully within the RTI Act's reach.

Transmission infrastructure. Doordarshan's transmitter network and All India Radio's transmitter and relay station network constitute some of the largest broadcast infrastructure systems in the world. RTI can access information about the number and location of transmitters and relay stations, coverage maps, the capital and maintenance expenditure on transmission infrastructure, contracts for tower infrastructure, and expansion plans for improving coverage in underserved areas. Citizens in areas with poor reception, community organisations advocating for better FM radio coverage, or researchers studying the geographic reach of public broadcasting will find this information accessible.

Complaint registers on content. Prasar Bharati maintains registers of complaints received from the public about broadcast content, inaccuracies, programme quality, and language standards. These complaint records — how many complaints were received, what categories they fell into, how they were disposed of, and what action was taken — are administrative records that RTI can reach. The internal mechanisms by which Prasar Bharati handles viewer and listener complaints are also a legitimate subject of RTI enquiry.

Recruitment and personnel records. Prasar Bharati is a substantial employer. Vacancies, selection criteria, examination cut-off scores for technical and programme staff, panel composition for interviews, orders of appointment, and the seniority lists and promotion criteria for existing staff are all RTI-accessible administrative records. Candidates who applied for positions and were not selected, employees who believe promotions were awarded unfairly, and researchers studying public sector employment practices in the media sector can all use RTI to access this category of information.

Budget allocations and expenditure. Prasar Bharati receives government grants-in-aid in addition to its commercial revenues. The annual budget allocation, the actual expenditure under each head, the utilisation of grants, and the financial statements that Prasar Bharati files with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting are all RTI-accessible. So are the details of capital expenditure — on new broadcast equipment, studio upgrades, satellite transponder costs, and transmission network expansion.

Annual reports and statutory disclosures. Prasar Bharati is required by the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 to prepare annual reports. These reports — covering operations, finances, audience reach, and policy compliance — are public documents. RTI can be used to obtain copies of annual reports for specific years, or to request specific data from these reports where the full report is not yet published.

Internal committees and policy decisions. Prasar Bharati has a Board of Directors and various internal committees that make decisions on policy, programming, and administration. Minutes of Board meetings, resolutions on programming policy, decisions on advertising rate cards, and the records of internal committees on specific issues are administrative records that RTI can reach, subject to the applicable exemptions.

What RTI Cannot Easily Get from Prasar Bharati

Understanding the limits of RTI access at Prasar Bharati is as important as understanding its scope. There are two categories of information that are either genuinely exempt or practically resistant to RTI:

Editorial decisions as distinct from administrative records. The RTI Act gives access to "information" in the form of records, documents, and data — material that a public authority holds in its administrative and operational capacity. It does not give citizens the right to demand explanations for editorial judgments — why a particular programme was placed in a particular time slot, why a news story was given a certain amount of coverage, or why a Doordarshan producer made a specific creative choice. The reason is structural: even though Prasar Bharati is a public authority, its broadcasting activities involve editorial discretion that is not readily reducible to "records held."

This is not an absolute distinction, and it has limits. The administrative decision to commission a programme, the contract terms under which it was produced, the financial approval for a particular production, and the criteria applied in deciding programming priorities — all of these are administrative records. But the editorial content of the programme itself — what the presenter said, what perspective was emphasised, which stories were selected — is not administrative record-keeping in the RTI sense. A CPIO cannot be compelled under the RTI Act to explain why Doordarshan News gave more airtime to one political event than another.

Third-party programme content under Section 8(1)(d). Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act exempts from mandatory disclosure "information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information." When Prasar Bharati has entered a contract with an external production house for a programme, the detailed technical and creative specifications — the script, the unbroadcast footage, the proprietary production methodology — belong to the producing company as commercial and intellectual property. Prasar Bharati cannot be compelled under RTI to hand over a third party's proprietary creative work. The contract value and contract terms, however, remain accessible as public procurement records. The commercial sensitivity attaches to the content, not to the administrative transaction.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: A Separate Authority

Prasar Bharati is not the only body relevant to broadcasting-related RTI. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is the Central Government ministry responsible for broadcasting policy, channel licensing, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, uplinking and downlinking guidelines, content regulation, and the overall regulatory framework for the Indian broadcasting sector.

MIB is a separate public authority from Prasar Bharati. An RTI to Prasar Bharati reaches the Corporation's own records. An RTI to MIB reaches the Ministry's regulatory and policy records — licences issued to satellite and cable channels, correspondence with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on broadcasting matters, content regulation decisions, complaints about channels, orders under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, and decisions about government advertising policy.

If you want to know what licences the government has issued to a particular private broadcaster, the conditions attached to those licences, the complaints MIB has received about a channel, or the government's policy on foreign direct investment in broadcasting, those questions go to MIB — not to Prasar Bharati. Conversely, if you want to know what Doordarshan paid a producer for a documentary, or what All India Radio's advertising rates are, those questions go to Prasar Bharati.

Both MIB and Prasar Bharati are Central Government public authorities. RTI to both is filed at rtionline.gov.in. The second appeal authority for both is the Central Information Commission (CIC) under Section 19(3) of the RTI Act.

Section 4 Proactive Disclosure Obligations

Section 4 of the RTI Act requires all public authorities to proactively publish a wide range of information about their structure, functions, finances, and decision-making, without waiting for citizens to file RTI applications. Prasar Bharati, as a public authority, has full Section 4 obligations.

Under Section 4(1)(b), Prasar Bharati must publish: the particulars of its organisation, functions, and duties; the powers and duties of its officers; the procedure followed in its decision-making process; norms set for the discharge of its functions; rules, regulations, instructions, manuals, and records held by it or under its control; a directory of its officers and employees; the monthly remuneration of each officer and employee; budget allocations; details of subsidy programmes; information available in electronic form; and the name and designation of the CPIO.

In practice, the extent to which Prasar Bharati proactively publishes this information — on the Prasar Bharati website and the Doordarshan and All India Radio websites — varies. The RTI Act does not merely recommend proactive disclosure; it requires it. Where Section 4 information is not proactively published, an RTI application is one route to obtaining it. Another is to file a complaint under Section 18 of the RTI Act with the Central Information Commission about non-compliance with Section 4 proactive disclosure obligations.

Practical Use Cases for Broadcasting RTI

Journalists investigating advertising. Government advertising on Prasar Bharati channels and on private channels through Doordarshan's facilities represents a significant flow of public money. Journalists investigating whether government advertising rates are commercially reasonable, whether there is differential treatment of specific channels or content types, or whether advertising revenue figures reported by Prasar Bharati match its actual receipts have a clear RTI pathway through Prasar Bharati's advertising records and through MIB's advertising policy files.

Researchers studying public broadcasting budgets. Academic and policy researchers studying the financial structure of public broadcasting in India — the balance between government grants and commercial revenues, the cost of different categories of programming, the per-capita cost of reaching audiences in different geographic areas — can use RTI to build a picture of Prasar Bharati's actual financial operations that goes beyond the published summary figures in annual reports.

Citizens checking recruitment fairness. Prasar Bharati employs technical staff (engineers, transmission operators), programme staff (producers, presenters, journalists), and administrative staff across hundreds of stations and offices. Candidates who applied for positions — for posts as programme executives, technical officers, or studio engineers — and were not selected can use RTI to verify that the selection process was conducted according to the stated criteria and that the results are consistent with the published selection standards. Cut-off scores, panel composition, and the comparative evaluation of candidates are all RTI-accessible administrative records.

Community organisations seeking better coverage. Villages and towns that do not receive adequate Doordarshan or All India Radio coverage can use RTI to ask about Prasar Bharati's coverage plans, the technical reasons for poor signal strength in specific areas, the infrastructure expansion roadmap, and the budgetary allocations for coverage improvement in underserved regions. This kind of RTI application can generate factual information useful in public interest advocacy.

Sample RTI Questions for Prasar Bharati

The following are examples of well-framed RTI questions that are likely to receive substantive responses from Prasar Bharati:

1. "Please provide the advertising rate card currently in force for Doordarshan National (DD1) for prime time (20:00–23:00) and non-prime time slots, distinguishing between sponsorship and spot advertising."
2. "Please provide the total advertising revenue earned by Doordarshan National and DD News separately for each of the financial years 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25."
3. "Please provide the names of the top 20 advertisers on Doordarshan channels by revenue for the financial year 2024-25, and the total amount paid by each."
4. "Please provide copies of contracts entered into by Prasar Bharati with external production houses for programme production during the financial year 2024-25, with the name of the production house, programme title, contract value, and episode count."
5. "Please provide the number of complaints received by Prasar Bharati regarding Doordarshan programming from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, categorised by nature of complaint (content inaccuracy, language, political bias, technical quality), and the disposal status of each category."
6. "Please provide the budget allocation and actual expenditure of All India Radio under the heads of transmission infrastructure, programme production, and administrative expenses for the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25."
7. "Please provide the criteria and qualifying marks applied in the selection of specific post at specific station/centre in year, along with the total number of applicants, the number of shortlisted candidates, and the number finally selected."
8. "Please provide the complete list of All India Radio transmitters and relay stations operational in state, their frequency allocations, power output, and coverage area as recorded in Prasar Bharati's records."
9. "Please provide details of all capital expenditure above ₹10 lakh approved by Prasar Bharati for broadcast equipment procurement during the financial year 2024-25, including vendor name, equipment description, and contract value."
10. "Please provide the government grant-in-aid received by Prasar Bharati from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for the financial years 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25, along with the heads under which the grant was utilised."

The Appeal Path for Prasar Bharati RTI

If Prasar Bharati's CPIO does not respond within 30 days, provides an incomplete response, or refuses the request on grounds you believe are incorrect, the appeal process under the RTI Act applies in the standard way.

Under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act, you may file a First Appeal to the First Appellate Authority — an officer senior to the CPIO within Prasar Bharati — within 30 days of the date of the CPIO's decision or the expiry of the 30-day response period, whichever is applicable. No fee is payable for a First Appeal. The First Appellate Authority must dispose of the appeal within 30 days, extendable to 45 days with reasons.

If the First Appeal fails or is not decided, you may file a Second Appeal under Section 19(3) of the RTI Act before the Central Information Commission (CIC). The CIC is the apex appellate authority for all Central Government public authorities, including Prasar Bharati. The CIC can order disclosure, impose penalties under Section 20 on a CPIO who has wrongly refused information or caused undue delays, and award compensation to the applicant.

A CPIO who without reasonable cause refuses to accept an RTI application, fails to respond within the time limit, maliciously denies information, or knowingly gives incorrect information is liable to a penalty of ₹250 per day of default, subject to a maximum of ₹25,000 under Section 20 of the RTI Act.

Why the Public Broadcaster Accountability Matters

The case for RTI scrutiny of Prasar Bharati is not simply about technical compliance with the RTI Act. It rests on the nature of what Prasar Bharati is: a corporation created by Parliament to operate public broadcasting services in the public interest, funded in part by public money, and exercising significant influence on the information environment that millions of Indians inhabit every day.

Advertising contracts worth crores of rupees, programme commissions to external producers, recruitment decisions affecting the careers of thousands of employees, and infrastructure investments that determine which communities have access to public broadcasting — these are all exercises of public power over public resources. The RTI Act's architecture of transparency exists precisely for these situations. The fact that the public authority in question operates television channels and radio stations rather than roads or hospitals does not change the underlying accountability obligation.

Private channels will not answer RTI questions, and they are not required to. But Doordarshan and All India Radio, as public broadcasters, are. That asymmetry is worth using.

If you are preparing an RTI application to Prasar Bharati, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, or any other Central Government public authority, RTISathi.com can help you draft, file, and track the application. RTI to Prasar Bharati is filed at rtionline.gov.in, with the Central Information Commission (CIC) as the second appeal authority under Section 19(3) of the RTI Act.