Fair and square

Look no further than Doordarshan's Kisan channel to disabuse yourself of the opinion that state-run media, by the very nature of its control being in the hands of the government, projects only the views of its masters. Launched last year, the news channel and its Twitter handle not only report the views of the government and its policies and programmes for the farm sector but also those of Opposition leaders such as Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The channel was one of the first to report on the crop damage caused by the recent rains in northern parts of India; its Twitter handle even put up photographs of the damage.