In its quest to bring Rajya Sabha Television (RSTV) on a par with private news channels, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, who is also Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, has for the first time formed a search-cum-selection committee comprising eminent journalists, lawmakers, officials of Prasar Bharati and Rajya Sabha Secretariat to select RSTV Editor-in-Chief.
The post of editor fell vacant after Gurdeep Singh Sappal resigned following the end of the tenure of Vice-President Hamid Ansari as Chairman of the Upper House.
In an office order (117/2017 RS TV) issued on October 18, by Rajya Sabha Secretariat, the search-cum-selection committee for the post of Editor-In-Chief, RS TV will invite applications and conduct interviews to select a suitable candidate and submit its recommendation to the chairman.
According to officials, this is the first time that Rajya Sabha Secretariat has set up a search-cum-selection committee for the post of Editor-In-Chief in Rajya Sabha TV.
The committee members include Prasar Bharati chairman A Surya Prakash, Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta (both of them are The Pioneer columnists), Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati, Additional Secretary (Personnel) of Rajya Sabha Secretariat and TV journalist Rahul Srivastava.
Sources said Editor-In-Chief will decide the policy and content of the news in consultation with Rajya Sabha Secretariat. “It will take at least one month to complete the formalities for the post,” said the sources.
Founded in 2008, Rajya Sabha TV is owned and operated by the upper house and the Vice President is its chairman. It covers the proceedings of the upper house of Parliament. RS TV has at present 67 sanctioned posts and is working with a total professional manpower of 487. This is the first time that Rajya Sabha Secretariat has adopted a procedure to appoint Editor-In-Chief since 2008.
Earlier, Naidu had reviewed the functioning of RS TV on October 11 and asked officials to examine whether the channel needs a CEO since the Rajya Sabha Secretariat provides administrative support. In this meeting, Naidu has hinted that a search-cum-selection committee would soon be set up to pick up the person for this top post.