Archives with DD, AIR should be freely available or monetised’

NEW DELHI: Archives including speeches and music with Doordarshan and All India Radio are a national resource that should be made freely available or monetised, Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash today said, underscoring the need to look at relevant copyright issues.

“Prasar Bharati has huge archival content that has to be exploited. It is a national resource that either needs to be monetised or disseminated free of cost to the public as a duty of the public service broadcaster,” he said at the 21st Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Copyright Committee Meeting.

He said the recordings of national leaders are a national treasure which should be made available to the people free of cost.

Prasar Bharati also has classical music content which is there in the AIR archives.

“But the unfortunate part is that we are not aware of all IPRs associated with it, even though we have recorded them in our studios. They were recorded at a time when such rights did not exist and too many formats were not available. Now every content has several rights associated with it. All this needs clarity,” Prakash said.

He said similar issues existed with regard to content as well.

Broadcasting in the digital era poses a wide variety of challenges for broadcasters including copyright protection, Prakash said, hoping the meeting would result in valuable deliberations on the issues.

Speaking on the occasion, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar said much is needed as far as awareness about copyright laws is concerned.

He said even in many important organisations only a few persons understood the issues in-depth.

Addressing the gathering where broadcasters from several countries were present including DG Doordarshan Vijayalaxmi Chhabra and DG AIR F Sheheryar, Sircar said these issues need to be thoroughly and meaningfully examined with clarity.

The Prasar Bharati CEO also extended support to Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).

Javad Mottoghi, Secretary General, ABU stressed on the for stronger “cooperation” among members.