Arnab Goswami elected News Broadcasters Federation President

The News Broadcasters Federation (NBF), the industry association of over 78 news channels representing broadcasters from 14 languages and 25 states of the country, unanimously elected Arnab Goswami, Managing Director and Editor in Chief of Republic TV, as the new President of the federation’s governing board.

The members of NBF met last Saturday to firm up the governance and management structure, as well to finalise on the modalities of a self-regulatory organisation — News Broadcasters Federation Authority — with an aim to bring in transparent self-regulation on content.

“I am grateful for the trust and confidence shown in me by the largest ever group of broadcasters in India. NBF is a game-changer and its incredible how so many channel owners and top executives have come together so quickly to make NBF happen,” Goswami said on being elected as the President of NBF.

“For far too long, a clutch of Delhi-based channels have falsely claimed to represent Indian broadcasting. NBF will change that, for good,” Goswami added.

The members also elected four Vice-Presidents, namely Jagi Mangat Panda Co-Founder of Ortel Communications; Shankar Bala of Fourth Dimension Media;  Sanjive Narain, Chairman and Managing Director of Prag News and  Kartikeya Sharma of ITV Network, who will be part of the governing board.

Prior to the board meeting, the members met Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, and presented their first set of demands. The minister urged NBF and its members to form a strong self-regulatory mechanism while recognising the importance of regional news channels. 

The President of NBF will steer a focused group in the formation of the self-regulatory body – ‘News Broadcasters Federation Authority’, which will create new standards for news broadcasting and address any violation through a committee of editors from within the federation. The self-regulation mechanism will be led by a Chairman, and four independent eminent persons, and another four editors. The new Self-Regulatory Organisation is scheduled to be announced officially by the end of January 2020.

“We will strive to make self-regulations and benefit the industry and take forward this industry in a very positive way keeping in mind the entire country, keeping in mind the entire diversity of the country in mind. We will take it forward,” added Sanjive Narain. 

The members of NBF also formalised the members of the three Specific Committees — Public Policy, Distribution, and Finance — by electing among the members through a mode of consensus.

Among the founder members of the NBF are: Republic Media Network (Republic TV and Republic Bharat), Puthiyathalaimurai (Tamil Nadu) and V6 News (Telangana), Orissa TV (Orissa), IBC24 (MP and Chhattisgarh), TV9 Bharatvarsh, Newslive and Northeast Live (Assam and Northeast), First India News (Rajasthan), Kolkata TV (West Bengal), CVR News (AP and Telangana), Polimer News (Tamil Nadu), Khabar Fast (Haryana), Living India News (Punjab), Prag News (Assam), NTV (AP and Telangana), Maha News (AP and Telangana), TV5 News (AP and Telangana), MKTV (Tamil Nadu), Vanitha TV (AP and Telangana), DNN and IND24 (MP), Shri Sankara TV and Ayush TV (Karnataka), A1 TV (Jaipur), Power TV (Karnataka),Raj News (Tamil Nadu), Twentyfour News (Kerala), CVR News Network (AP and Telangana), National Voice (Uttar Pradesh), Nirman News (Gujarat), Anaadi TV (MP and Chhattisgarh), VRL Media (Karnataka), Calcutta News (West Bengal),News 7 (Tamil Nadu), DNN and News World (MP and Chhattisgarh), MH One (Haryana), Mantavya News (Gujarat), Gujarat Television (Gujarat), S Newz (West Bengal), Bansal TV (MP) and Onkat TV (West Bengal).

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