Former NDTV presenter Barkha Dutt, the Emmy-nominated TV presenter—and easily the best in language, poise and presentation—is back on air, with a new “show” on the Kapil Sibal-backed TV channel.
These were her opening words on first day, first show.
“Good evening, my name is Barkha Dutt and you are watching ‘Democracy Live’, your brand-new primetime show, a show that promises to bring back sanity, dignity, robustness and journalism to primetime television.
“On this programme, there will be no shouting encouraged; no theatrics; no tu-tu-main-main—equal space for all perspectives, and a focus on the issues (sic).
“We promise your cynicism with
television news will end tonight.”
Given the confusion over its name (there is an evangelical channel called Harvest in Kerala), and the controversy over its broadcast (Sibal alleges Tata Sky is being pressured to yank it off), the channel is still groping around.
Should it call itself Harvest TV or HTN or HTN News?
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the channel’s website is still to go live, and its Twitter handle is a bewildering @NewsHtn.
All pointing to the hurriedness of the launch.
Watch the first episode: Democracy Live
IJR 