Urgent: Question Mark Hangs Over Sangat Tv Future -16Th April 2012

[11Gurus1Jot]

Hopefully sangat tv and sikh channel will stand for and broadcast truth always.

[West London Singh]

Overall, Sangat TV does far more good than bad. When it does good, it postively puts The Sikh Channel to shame. For instance on the day of the protests in Punjab, the Sangat crew were 3 steps ahead of the sikh channel in every respect. And the difference was clearest in the way that the Sangat crew, with total disregard for their own safety, crossed police lines and went right into the lions den. i.e deep inside the Shiv Sena district where Sikhs were attacked. I appreciated brave journalism like that because it put real images to the stories that were unfolding. Lets not mince words here....Sangat TV, in its short life-term, have achieved legendary status worldwide. The things it does wrong are things that, if they use a little common sense, they can rectify. For instance...surely someone at Sangat TV must have the foresight to notice that the 'Day and Night News' they are paying for is not serving any positive purpose. Lets take the day of the protests for example : Sangat Tv were showing dead bodies, crying mothers and revolution in the air. They then cut to the 'Day and Night News' bulletin from Punjab, whose major headlines of what was happening in Punjab that day went along the lines of :

DING - Major new Highway construction in Punjab announced today

DING - Anna Hazara ends his fast

DING - Jalandhar flower show opens with festive crowds

Surely there's at least one person at Sangat TV HQ thats noticed how Day & Night News is not serving the Sikh diaspora's news needs one little bit.

Which leads us to the real problem. The need for a real genuine news organisation based in Punjab. The 2 that exist are substandard for their own different reasons. PTC because its Badals official mouthpiece and Day and Night because its impotent.

So......remember how, over the last decade, so many of our Sikhs here in England, who couldn't get on to a Law or Accountancy degree, were en-masse doing mickey mouse Media Studies degrees at former polytechnics. Well...where are they now when we actually need them ? I'll tell you where they are.....they're all working carphone warehouse . Time for them to get their fingers out and lend their 'expertise.

I doubt they will though. For the simple reason that most of them spent the best part of those 3 years clubbing and bhangra dancing rather than actually learning the art of media.

Our best bet then is for not only Sikh Channel and Sangat TV to pool their resources and merge into one, stable, professional broadcast outfit.......but also for the worldwide Sikh diaspora to get together and establish a single global Sikh Channel, with studios in London, Vancouver, Sacramento and Amritsar. I don't know how one goes about gettinga broadcast licence in Punjab but one possibility we could look at it basing its transmission in Lahore, as it would then be able, I think, to be picked up by the Sikhs of Punjab via satellite.

In the short term though....Time for the sikh channel and sangat tv to merge.

[11Gurus1Jot]

May Sangat tv and Sikh Channel always stand for Guru Granth and Guru Panth.