Veena Jain was appointed as the new Director General (news) of Doordarshan by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) on Friday. Akshay Rout was the previous senior IIS officer playing the role of Doordarshan’s DG. Veena Jain will also be acting as the new officer on special duty in the Ministry for New Media Wing and Social Media Cell.

Veena Jain has also been promoted to the Selection Grade of IIS Group A currently posted as Additional Director General in the News Services Division of AIR. Jain has also played the role of director of Publications Divisions in the past. The twitter handle of AIR announced her appointment, “Veena Jain posted as DG, DD News-cum-OSD New Media & Social Media in I&B Ministry. Presently, she is ADG (News) AIR.”

According to the notification issued by I&B, Veena Jain will be reporting all the updates directly to the ministry for all purposes. This particular order has made people suspect the professional independence that is supposed to be enjoyed by AIR and DD. DD news enjoys one of the most influential positions in public broadcasting and both Doordarshan and All India Radio function under Prasar Bharati.

I&B Secretary Bimal Julka stated, “We need a director general level official to supervise the social media and new media wing. This is to help her acclimatize. She will continue to report to the Prasar Bharati CEO as DG news.” Making it clear that there will be no threat to the autonomy of Prasar Bharati.