NEW DELHI: While becoming the first information and broadcasting minister to deliver the annual Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture in two languages – Hindi and English – instead of the customary English, Smriti Irani emphasised it is imperative that broadcasting gives adequate space to India’s diverse regional languages for them to reach out to the widest audiences.

Addressing the 60th edition of the memorial lecture in New Delhi, Irani underscored the need for a democratised viewership citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s radio broadcast, ‘Mann ki Baat’, as a classic example of how technology platform has taken the PM’s message and created awareness about issues. Referring to news in the current context as a “spectator sport” and where headlines were competing with hashtags, Irani also credited public broadcaster Prasar Bharati with putting public interest over business and profit interest and said it was incumbent upon Prasar Bharati to speak freely and fairly for the progress of the nation.

Lauding filmmaker Muzaffar Ali for making short films for the textile ministries, the I&B minister also urged Ali to share the creative content with Prasar Bharati, and asked the public broadcaster to carry the stories about the lives of ordinary people to the rest of the country and the world. Irani also said the I&B ministry will endeavour to promote “Design Thinkers”, who can think beyond content creation, and follow a multi-disciplinary approach to content generation in the digital space. tnn