title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: Following Rihanna and Ekko's performance at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on February 10, 2013, the song entered the US Digital Songs chart at number 25 for the issue dated February 23, seeing a 289% increase in sales to 67,000 copies sold. It subsequently debuted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 57, rocketing to number three the week after, following the chart's new policy that allowed YouTube streaming to count towards the single's chart performance. The surge was also due to the large 358% increase of digital downloads to 306,000 sales sold that week, rising to number two on the Digital Songs chart. With the new Hot 100 peak, Rihanna gained her 24th top 10 on the chart, surpassing Whitney Houston's tally of 23. The following week, the song slipped to number seven, selling 213,000 copies while bounding from number 57 to 36 on the Radio Songs chart. In its third total week on the Hot 100, "Stay" rebounded to number five, selling 211,000 downloads and charging from number 36 to 23 on the Radio Songs chart. In its fourth week on the Hot 100, the song again climbed to number four, surging from number 23 to 16 on the Radio Songs chart, and increasing 12% in download sales to 236,000 copies sold. With this, "Stay" passed the one million downloads-sold barrier, becoming Rihanna's 27th title (including featured appearances) to reach the sales milestone. The following week it rose to number 11 on the Radio Songs chart, selling 222,000 digital copies. For the issue dated April 6, "Stay" ascended to number six on the Radio Songs chart, marking Rihanna's 22nd top 10 on the chart. With this, she trails only Mariah Carey (23) for the most top tens in the tally's archives. For the date issued, May 11, 2013, "Stay" topped the Radio Songs chart, marking Rihanna's 11th number one on the chart, thus tying her with Mariah Carey for the most leaders dating to the BDS-based chart's December 1990 inception. With the ascension, the song climbed from six to its previous peak of number three on the Hot 100.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: "Stay" first charted in the United States on the Mainstream Top 40 chart at number 34, on the issue dated February 16, 2013. On the issue dated March 30, 2013, the song climbed into the top 10 of the chart at number nine. For the issue dated May 4, 2013, "Stay" rose from number two to one on the Pop Songs chart, tallying her 10th leader. With this, she broke a tie with Katy Perry for the most toppers in the chart's 20-year history. Also notably, "Stay" is only the second piano-and-vocal-only number one to have ruled Pop Songs, following Bruno Mars' "When I Was Your Man". "Stay" debuted on the US Dance Club Songs chart at number 47 for the issue dated March 30, 2013. "Stay" also became Rihanna's third top ten on the Adult Pop Songs chart, charting at number two. Furthermore, it peaked at number five on the Adult Contemporary chart. By July 2013, "Stay" had sold over 3 million digital copies, marking Rihanna's 10th song to pass the three million sales mark. The song became the 10th best-selling song of 2013 in the US, with 3,854,000 copies sold for the year. As of June 2015, the song has sold 4,480,000 copies in the US.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: The song entered the Canadian Hot 100 at number 58, for the week dated December 8, 2012. It re-entered the chart for the week of February 23, 2013 at number 37. The following week, it leaped to number three, where it remained for a further week before climbing to number two for the week of March 16, 2013. The following week, "Stay" reached number one, becoming Rihanna's eighth single to top the chart, and second consecutive following "Diamonds". It remained number one for three consecutive weeks.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: In the United Kingdom, "Stay" debuted on the UK Hip Hop and R&B Singles Chart at number 16 on November 25, 2012, due to strong digital download sales following the release of "Unapologetic". It also entered the UK Singles Chart at number 102 in the same week. Following Rihanna's performance of the song on "The X Factor" the previous week, "Stay" re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number six on December 22, 2012. The following week it climbed to a new peak of number four. Over the next five weeks, the song fluctuated inside the top ten, again returning to its number four peak on two separate occasions. As of February 2013, "Stay" has sold over 394,000 copies in the UK. "Stay" debuted in Ireland at number 15 for the week ending December 13, 2012. Elsewhere in Europe, the song debuted at number 53 in both France and Switzerland, following the release of the album. After three weeks of charting outside of the top 100, "Stay" returned to its former peak of 53 in France on January 5, 2013. It reached a peak of number two in its twelfth week on the chart. "Stay" also reached number one in Denmark on March 1, 2013, marking Rihanna's fifth number one in the country, and second consecutive following "Diamonds"' charting.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: "Stay" entered the singles chart in New Zealand at number 28 on December 24, 2012. The following week it climbed to number 25 and in its third week to a new peak of 16. On January 14, 2013, it climbed into the top ten to number nine, marking Rihanna's 28th top ten single, and fifth consecutive. The song remained at the position for five consecutive weeks, before marking a new peak of number seven in its ninth total week on the chart. The following week, "Stay" climbed to number six, where it returned two weeks later after a drop to number seven. After the song fell again to number seven, it managed a new top five peak of four in its fourteenth week on the chart. The song has been certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand for sales of 30,000 copies. In Australia, "Stay" debuted at number 43 for the issue dated January 20, 2013. The following week it climbed to number 28, and into the top 20 to number 12 the week after. In its fourth week, the song made a new peak of number 11. The following week it dropped to 13, but rebounded into the top ten to mark a new peak of number six in its sixth total week on the chart, following the release of the music video. With this, the song became Rihanna's 24th top ten single in the country. The following week, it climbed to number five, managing a higher position than the album's lead single, "Diamonds". In its eighth week on the chart, "Stay" climbed to number four, marking a new peak. It has received a quintuple-platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association for sales of 350,000 copies.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, it sold 7.9 million copies worldwide in 2013.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: The music video for "Stay" was directed by Sophie Muller. On February 10, 2013, whilst walking the red carpet of the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, Rihanna held an interview with Ryan Seacrest who officially revealed that the music video would premiere on E! News the following day. Rihanna described the production saying, "The video was really, really simple. I pretty much stayed put in a bathtub, and we shot it really tight, really close. There's Mikky Ekko in the video as well. This is the first time I've ever collaborated with him, so I'm excited about that because he's actually the one who wrote the song and I kinda just fell in love with it so much and in love with the tone of his voice and we wanna keep him a part of it, so you'll see him in the video." The singer added, "It's a very emotional song and it's personal, so you just think about, it's almost like telling a story, and when you tell a story, even to yourself – if you're saying it out loud and expressing how you feel – it needs to be powerful because it needs to be authentic." On February 11, Rihanna leaked an "uncut" version of the video on Twitter prior to the official premiere, featuring the singer performing to the track in one singular take, without Mikky Ekko. The official version premiered on E! News later that day. It was then uploaded to Rihanna's official Vevo account at 8am ET the following day. Shortly after the video was uploaded, it was flagged by YouTube for its sexual content. The flag has since been removed.. On February 12th 2013, the Stay music video was uploaded on Rihanna's YouTube Channel and has received more than 1 billion views as of August 2022.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: The video opens with a shot of running water. Rihanna is then presented undressing and climbing into a bathtub. Throughout the rest of the video, the singer is presented nude in the tub full of cloudy green water; subtle camera angles protect her modesty. Rihanna is shown wearing little make-up and with long hair tangled and wet over one side of her face. The singer flickers her eyes to the ceiling and puts her head in her hands, showing off long manicured nails and a diamond stud earring. The low-key video also features Mikky Ekko, who performs his parts of the song separately including scenes of him perched on the edge of a different bathtub, gazing into a mirror, in front of an unlit fireplace, and sitting on a grand chair. The video switches between the pair throughout the course of the video until it concludes with a single tear falling from Rihanna's eye as she sinks lower into the bathtub.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: A reviewer of The Huffington Post commented, "The heartfelt ballad, from her latest album "Unapologetic", is full of emotion – and the video matches that, as a stripped-down Rihanna soaks in a tub." August Brown of the "Los Angeles Times" commented on the video saying, "We kind of want to curl up in a hot shower and have a good cry ourselves." They continued saying, "It's kind of an echo of her famous "We Found Love" video, with that clip's quick-cut, drugged-up frenzy of bad romance replaced with solitary, locked-off shots that feel more intimate than exploitative. She looks amazing, but the focus isn't so much her body as the look of constant devastation on her face." Brown summarised the clip as being "appropriately minimalist[ic]" and concluded calling it "a beautiful video that broadens Rihanna's emotional-musical palette." Bené Viera of VH1 commented on the video saying, "Usually the tough girl posturing is a cover-up for a very sensitive soul. Rihanna cut the 'I don't give an eff' attitude for four minutes of makeup-free, teary-eyed, glistening wet, raw emotion in the video for 'Stay.'" Sarah Flanigan of Yahoo! thought the video shows "a softer side of [Rihanna's] personality audiences rarely get to see." She also stated, "There are no gimmicks, no flashy clothes, just a very raw and emotional performance allowing her to tell this love story in her own words." Jenna Hally Rubenstein of MTV labelled the video as "perfectly heartbreaking/emotionally vulnerable" and thought the "baptismal effect" of the video "feels like a seamless transition from Rihanna's 'Diamonds' video." Tamar Anitai also of MTV compared the video to Britney Spears' "Everytime" (2004), writing that both videos "are equal parts stunning and sobering, haunting and harrowing, and both feature impossibly famous singers reflecting upon damaged relationships while inviting us into their well-designed bathrooms as they vulnerably perform their ablutions." Rihanna's "Stay" video was also compared to and said to be inspired by Janet Jackson's "Every Time" video, as well as Britney Spears' "Everytime" video, with one critic noting "Rihanna isn't the first pop star to brood in a bathtub. Janet Jackson and Britney Spears also bared their emotion immersed in water. Janet bared all in a blue lagoon for her 'Every Time' video. A little less glam, Britney's tub scene in her 'Everytime' video proved dark foreshadowing into her troubled world."


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: As part of promotion for the release of "Unapologetic" on November 19, 2012, Rihanna premiered "Stay" on "Saturday Night Live" on November 10, 2012. She also performed the album's lead single "Diamonds". Rihanna performed a solo version of "Stay", without guest vocalist Ekko. Rihanna wore a Bob Marley dress and adorned red lipstick. Jocelyn Vena for MTV praised the singer's performance, writing "Rihanna used her touching vocals to prove that not only can she sex up a performance but she can also sing the heck out of one." Erika Ramirez noted that Rihanna "belted out the song."


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: During the seven days prior to the release of the album, Rihanna embarked on the 777 Tour, a seven-date promotional tour where she performed seven concerts in seven cities in seven countries across North America and Europe. Not included on the set list at the first concert in Mexico City, she performed "Stay" at the second concert in Toronto as part of a medley with "Love the Way You Lie". The solo version of the song was performed the third concert in Stockholm. At the fourth concert in Paris, it was performed as the ninth song out of 13 in between "S&M" and "Where Have You Been", preceded by a snippet of "Take Care". The fifth and sixth concerts were held in Berlin and London, respectively, where Rihanna performed "Stay" both nights in between "S&M" and "Unfaithful". The seventh and final concert was held in New York City, where "Stay" was also performed. Erika Ramirez for "Billboard" attended all seven concerts as part of the press committee, where she described the audience as being in a "trance" as the singer performed the song.


title: Stay (Rihanna song)

text: Rihanna performed "Stay" at the final of the ninth series of "The X Factor" on December 9, 2012. The singer performed "Stay" together with Mikky Ekko at the 2013 Grammy Awards on February 10, 2013. The performance featured the singer standing in front of a "dimly lit set" and was dressed in a long "curve-hugging" dark dress. Mikael Wood of "Los Angeles Times" positively reviewed the performance and wrote that it was the most memorable moment of the night. Charley Rogulewski of "Vibe" in a review of the rendition wrote, "Her [Rihanna's] beautiful voice took center stage during the duet, assuring those watching why she was worthy of her six Grammys". A reviewer of Capital FM wrote that Rihanna looked visibly moved by the performance as she showed her "impressive vocals". The solo version of "Stay" is included as part of the set list on Rihanna's fifth headlining concert tour, the "Diamonds World Tour", as the twenty-seventh track and first of the encore. The song served as an opening song on her seventh headlining tour the "Anti World Tour." She also performed the song at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.


title: Kacey Rohl

text: Kacey Rohl (born August 6, 1991) is a Canadian actress. She is known for playing Sterling Fitch in the television crime drama "The Killing", Prudence in the 2011 dark fantasy film "Red Riding Hood", and Abigail Hobbs in the television drama "Hannibal". Rohl has starred as Jenna Engel in the 2014 television sitcom "Working the Engels", and as Kerry Campbell in the second season of the television sci-fi drama series "Wayward Pines". In 2018, she played the lead role of Katie Arneson in the 2018 Canadian psychological thriller film "White Lie".


title: Kacey Rohl

text: Rohl was born in and currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her father is television director Michael Rohl, and her mother, Jan Derbyshire, is a playwright and comedian who also works in the entertainment industry. She began studying acting when she was 14.


title: Kacey Rohl

text: Rohl's first prominent acting role was playing Sterling Fitch in the first two seasons of the AMC crime drama "The Killing" in 2011–2012. Also in 2011, she played Prudence in the 2011 dark fantasy film "Red Riding Hood". From 2013 to 2015, Rohl recurred as Abigail Hobbs in the NBC television crime drama "Hannibal". She was cast in the starring role of daughter Jenna Engel in the 2014 NBC sitcom "Working the Engels".


title: Kacey Rohl

text: Since 2015, Rohl has recurred as Marina on the Syfy television series "The Magicians". In 2016, she appeared in the thirteenth episode of the fifth season of the ABC television series "Once Upon a Time", playing the role of Megara. Rohl was cast in the regular role of Kerry Campbell in the second season of the Fox sci-fi drama television series "Wayward Pines" which aired mid-2016. Since 2017 she has played the recurring role of Alena on The CW superhero drama series "Arrow".


title: Kacey Rohl

text: Rohl starred in the 2018 Canadian psychological thriller film "White Lie", playing the lead role of Katie Arneson. She received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actress at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards for her performance.


title: Kacey Rohl

text: She starred as Sabrina Swanson in the 2018 Syfy horror television film "Killer High". In July 2019, Rohl was cast in the 2020 Canadian spy thriller series "Fortunate Son".


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Maverick Viñales Ruiz (; born 12 January 1995) is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle racer. Viñales is the 2013 Moto3 World Champion, currently riding in MotoGP for the Aprilia Racing team, after five seasons as a MotoGP factory rider with the Yamaha Factory Racing team, his contract was terminated by mutual consent midway through the 2021 season.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Born in Figueres, Alt Empordà, Viñales began competitive racing at the age of three in minimotos before moving onto motocross and eventually to circuit racing in 2002, competing in the Catalan 50cc Championship, before several successful seasons in 70cc "metrakit" bikes. In 2007, he became champion of the Catalan 125cc Championship, and repeated the feat in 2008, as well as winning the Mediterranean Trophy. Also in 2008, he competed at selected events in the German IDM 125GP Championship for RZT Racing aboard an Aprilia RS 125 R, achieving a best result of seventh. He moved up to the CEV Buckler 125GP series in 2009, with the Blusens-BQR team, partnering Miguel Oliveira in the team. Viñales finished the season as Rookie of the Year as he finished as the runner-up to Alberto Moncayo in the championship standings, by just four points. Viñales claimed four successive podiums during the season, including a victory at Jerez. In 2010, Viñales and Oliveira joined different teams from Blusens and battled it out for the championship title and despite winning only two races – both at Albacete – compared to Oliveira's four wins and two second places, Viñales took the title by just two points after finishing each of the season's seven races on the podium as Oliveira crashed out of one race at Albacete. The single race for the 2010 European Championship title was also taking place at Viñales's winning circuit Albacete where he narrowly took his third victory of the year at the same venue.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Viñales moved to the 125cc World Championship ahead of the season, partnering category veteran Sergio Gadea, who returned to the 125cc class after a season in Moto2, at the SuperMartxé VIP team after the Blusens-BQR team joined forces with American socialite Paris Hilton. He impressed during pre-season testing at Valencia, and finished ninth on his Grand Prix début in Qatar. After retiring at Jerez due to brake failure, Viñales finished fourth at Estoril, narrowly missing out on a podium to Johann Zarco in a photo-finish with the margin between the pair being 0.002 seconds. Two weeks later at Le Mans, Viñales took his first front-row grid start with third place, and after a race-long battle with championship leader Nicolás Terol, Terol made a mistake at the penultimate corner and Viñales cut inside him and took the victory by 0.048 seconds. His victory, at the age of , made him the third-youngest rider to win a Grand Prix race behind Scott Redding and Marco Melandri. Three further victories during the season enabled Viñales to finish his rookie season in third place in the championship rankings and he won the Rookie of the Year award.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Viñales went into the 2012 season as title favourite in the newly formed Moto3 championship. He won five races early on in the season, but a lack of consistency with several crashes meant that he was not able to keep up with Sandro Cortese. Going into Malaysia still with a slim chance of winning the title, he shocked fans and media when he angrily left his team and flew back home, withdrawing from the race. Cortese won the race and the title with Luis Salom moving into second place. Viñales later stated that he had not been informed of offers from other Moto3 teams, that the team refused to move him up into Moto2 and instead made him sign an extension to his contract into 2014 and that he was unable to win with them as it was a "second division team". Viñales eventually apologized and returned to the team for the final two races of the season, securing third in the standings, but losing the runner-up spot to Salom.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: He moved to Team Calvo for 2013, riding alongside Ana Carrasco. Sorting out his new contract after his walkout in Malaysia supposedly was a very delicate affair which included a high release fee having to be paid to his former team and interest also being expressed by the Marc VDS Moto3 team. He won his first two races with Team Calvo back-to-back at round three and four, the Spanish and French Grand Prix. In later races he had several opportunities to win as he was leading the last laps at San Marino, Aragon and Philip Island, but on all occasions he was eventually overtaken by fellow Spanish rider Álex Rins. He was starting to fade from the title fight with two races to go and only a slim chance left to win, but at Motegi both championship front runners Luis Salom and Alex Rins didn't score any points as both crashed out of the race, Salom being taken out by Viñales' cousin Isaac Viñales. Viñales finished second behind rookie Álex Márquez, putting him back into the title fight. The three riders went into the final round with a gap of just five points between them. As Salom crashed out and rejoined to finish 14th, Rins and Viñales continued battling until the last corner. In the end, Viñales narrowly took the victory and Moto3 World Championship with Rins finishing runner-up.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Viñales signed a two-year contract with Pons Racing, due to expire at the end of 2015. He joined former title rival Luis Salom in the team. He took his first intermediate class victory at the Circuit of the Americas on 13 April 2014. He ultimately finished the season in third place in the riders' championship with four wins and nine podiums. He also won the Rookie of the Year award.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: In September 2014 it was announced that Viñales would move up to the MotoGP class for the season, riding for the factory Suzuki team on their return to the class. He partnered Aleix Espargaró at the team. Viñales became the first rider to move up to MotoGP after just one lone season in Moto2, even all-time greats like Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez spent two years in the intermediate category.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Viñales had a decent debut season with the factory Suzuki team. As it was the comeback year for the Japanese manufacturer, they received various concessions for development, and the bike underwent several changes during the season. Viñales finished 16 out of 18 races, scoring six Top-10 results along the way, once again showing consistency as his strength. He ended the season in 12th place, winning the Rookie of the Year award.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: The 2016 season saw an improved bike and almost immediate success for Viñales and the factory Suzuki team. Viñales took his first MotoGP podium with third place in France. and his first ever MotoGP win at the British Grand Prix and Suzuki's first win since Chris Vermeulen's win in France in 2007, moving him to 4th place in the championship.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: After Jorge Lorenzo announced his move to the Ducati team, Viñales was signed to replace him at the factory Yamaha team in 2017 and 2018.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: His 2017 MotoGP campaign started with victory in Qatar making him the first rider to win on debut for Yamaha since Valentino Rossi in 2004 and the first rider to win on a debut for any team since Casey Stoner in 2011. His strong start to the season continued with victory in Argentina, leading to many tipping Viñales as a championship contender. In the following race in the USA, there was disappointment when Viñales was forced to retire, crashing after only 2 laps from fourth place. Viñales followed this up with a sixth-place finish in Jerez and a hard-fought victory over Rossi at Le Mans. However, this was to be his last victory of the season. Viñales went on to take third in the rider's championship, finishing the season on 230 points, 22 points ahead of this teammate.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: At the Yamaha official season launch in January 2018, Viñales announced that he had signed a two-year contract extension, guaranteeing his factory seat through the 2020 season. The 2018 season was difficult for Viñales and a struggling Yamaha team. Despite a number of early season podiums for Viñales and his teammate Rossi, Yamaha set a new record winless streak of 25 races before Viñales scored a win at Phillip Island. Viñales finished the season with 193 points in fourth place of the rider's championship, 5 points behind his teammate.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: In November 2018 as the provisional 2019 entry list was published, Viñales confirmed he would be switching from his traditional race number 25 to the number 12 previously used by Troy Bayliss. Viñales claimed the change was because he "felt that [he] needed to do something different" and had previously used the number 12 in motocross as a youth, since his birthday is 12 January.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Viñales win Dutch TT and Malaysia. Viñales went on to take third in the rider's championship, finishing the season on 211 points.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: The 2020 season was shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Viñales started strongly in the Spanish opening double-header, with two second-place finishes. At the fifth round in Styria, Viñales suffered a brake malfunction on the 17th lap, forcing him to leap from the bike at high speed at the end of the start-finish straight, leading to a fiery crash and a red flag of the race. He struggled in later races, scoring one win in Emilia Romagna but only managing one other top five finish in Aragon, before ending the season sixth overall in the championship standings.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: After struggling for consistency during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Viñales started 2021 with a dominating win in Qatar. Results in the following races were disappointing – while teammate Fabio Quartararo performed strongly to become a title favourite – culminating in the German Grand Prix where Viñales recorded his worst MotoGP weekend, qualifying 21st on the grid and finishing last of all classified riders. His fortunes looked to be improving at the subsequent Dutch TT, where he qualified on pole, but ultimately finished second behind teammate Quartararo to score just his second podium finish of the season. The following day on June 28, 2021, Viñales made the shock announcement that he had terminated his contract with Yamaha and would leave the factory team after the 2021 season prematurely and not see out the full term until the end of 2022.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Prior to the Austrian Grand Prix, Yamaha withdrew Viñales' entry citing telemetry data indicating "unexplained irregular operation of the motorcycle" during the Styrian Grand Prix. These irregularities led to his suspension by the team, as it was thought his actions could potentially have damaged the engine, putting himself and other riders at serious risk.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: In August 2021, it was announced that Viñales would join the factory Aprilia racing team from 2022, initially on a one-year contract, joining existing rider Aleix Espargaró. On 20 August 2021, Yamaha and Viñales ended their contract with immediate effect, opening the door for Viñales to make an early debut with Aprilia at the Aragon Grand Prix on 12 September. Viñales took the place of regular team rider Lorenzo Savadori, who was injured in August and will continue to act as the team's test rider. Viñales finished the season 10th in the rider's standings, with 106 points.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Viñales' first podium with Aprilia came at the Dutch TT. Then, he finished second in the British Grand Prix. He finished third for his third podium in four races at the San Marino Grand Prix.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: On 26 May 2022, Viñales signed a contract extension with the team for 2023 and 2024, still teaming up with Aleix Espargaró.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Viñales has a cousin, Isaac Viñales, who has competed in the 125cc, Moto3 and Moto2 World Championships.


title: Maverick Viñales

text: Viñales had another cousin, Dean Berta Viñales, who died aged 15 on 25 September 2021 in a Supersport 300 race at Jerez after being involved in a collision.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Prasar Bharati (abbreviated as PB; Hindi: "Praśar Bharati", lit. Indian Broadcaster) is India's state-owned public broadcaster, headquartered in New Delhi. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament and comprises the Doordarshan Television Network and Akashvani All India Radio, which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Parliament of India passed the Prasar Bharati Act to grant this autonomy in 1990, but it was not enacted until 15 September 1997.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: The Prasar Bharati board chairperson's position remains vacant since Dr A. Surya Prakash finished his second term in February 2020. He had succeeded Dr Mrinal Pande. Sh. Gaurav Dwivedi is the CEO of Prasar Bharati (he succeeded Shashi Shekhar Vempati who was the CEO until June 2022).


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 revealed that DD News and All India Radio are the most trusted News brands in India.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: The Prasar Bharati Act provides for the establishment of a Broadcasting Corporation, to be known as Prasar Bharati, and define its composition, functions, and powers. The Act grants autonomy to All India Radio and to Doordarshan, both of which were previously under government control. The Act received the assent of the President of India on 12 September 1990 after being unanimously passed by Parliament. It was finally implemented in November 1997. By the Prasar Bharati Act, all property, assets, debts, liabilities, payments of money due, as well as all suits and legal proceedings involving Akashvani (All India Radio) and Doordarshan were transferred to Prasar Bharati.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: The organization started as All India Radio (AIR) in the past and Doordarshan (DD) was born to cater television services later and finally came Prasar Bharati (PB) by enactment of an act by the parliament,


title: Prasar Bharati

text: The Prasar Bharati Act vests the general superintendence, direction, and management of affairs of the Corporation in the Prasar Bharati Board which may exercise all such powers and do all such acts and things as may be exercised or done by the corporation.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: The President of India appoints the chairman and the other Members, except the "ex officio" members, nominated member and the elected members. Board meetings must be held at least once in every three months each year.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: At nearly Rs 1350 crore, Prasar Bharati closed the financial year 2021–2022 with a strong revenue growth of 13 percent from commercial operations. Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati explained through tweets that the growth was “fuelled primarily by strong post COVID recovery of All India Radio and continued growth momentum of FreeDish and Digital despite uncertainty of pandemic. While road to financial self sustainability for the Public Broadcaster is a way off, foundation has been laid with key reforms such as phase out of obsolete technologies, consolidation of redundant operations, IT/Digital enablement of functions and new avenues for monetization.”


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Responding to claims of Prasar Bharati being run on public money, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati through a tweet clarified that DD has to earn its money to run its operations. Public money does not fund broadcast operational expenditure of DD. Public funding is only to the extent of salaries of government employees on deputation to DD.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In 2019, addressing the gathering at Kautilya Fellows Programme, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati elaborated upon the difference between funding of public broadcasters in other countries and in India, “In India, we have a very different model for two reasons. First, when Prasar Bharati was created in 1997, all the assets of the AIR and Doordarshan were transferred to this corporation, but it is not a corporation in the true sense. Corporates in India come under Companies Act and this Act defines whether you are a public undertaking, whether you are a government company or whether you are a limited liability partnership etc. Prasar Bharati doesn’t come under the ambit of the Companies Act. So, it is not a corporate in true sense, it’s a statutory autonomous body. Secondly, when it was created in 1997, all of the employees of DD and AIR continued to remain employees of the Government of India. So we have this hybrid model where the corporate is autonomous but everyone working within it are the employees of the government. What this also means is that their salaries, pensions etc., is funded from the government. So if you take away these wages and related expenses, all of the operational expenditure has to be funded by revenue generation from commercial advertising and sponsorship and whatever other commercial activities Prasar Bharati can undertake, which is a huge challenge because nowhere in the world does a public broadcaster sustains itself through advertising. In India, we ended up doing it because of the unique model we have where operations have to be funded from our revenues."


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Public Broadcasting landscape in India has seen a dramatic transformation since 2014, inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra of making Sabka Prayas a mass movement.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Over the past 8 years, DD FreeDish has seen dramatic growth doubling its reach. DD FreeDish DTH has emerged as the largest free to air public DTH platform serving more than 4.5 crore families. During COVID-19 lockdown when schools were not functioning, the educational TV channels on DD FreeDish DTH came to the aid of millions of students across India.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: During COVID, DD and AIR emerged as forces for the greater public good playing a critical role in social messaging at every stage from precautions to COVID appropriate behavior to overcoming Vaccine hesitancy. Industry data has estimated that COVID-19 social messaging by Doordarshan was amongst the highest across TV channels in India. The newly created PBNS digital news unit played an active role in busting fake news working in tandem with PIB’s Fact-check Unit.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Prasar Bharati has undertaken the single biggest reform in Television Broadcastingin India with the phasing out of more than 1200 obsolete Analog Terrestrial TV Transmitters. This has not only saved crores of expenditure of Doordarshan but it has made valuable UHF Spectrum available for expanding 5G services and Rural Communication services


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Key technology reforms over the last 8 years including the infusion of Information Technology systems across DD and AIR ensured that the 25,000 humongous work force and more than 1000 Offices, Broadcasting Centres across the country managed to remain operational with 24*7 news services, educational and entertainment programming.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: The footprint of Doordarshan has expanded significantly between 2017 and 2021. In 2017, the number of satellite channels stood at 23 as opposed to 36 in 2021. A dedicated channel for Agriculture was launched in the form of DD Kisan which has since made natural farming a mass movement. Many new regional channels, including DD Arun Prabha, DD Chattisgarh, DD Uttarakhand, DD Jharkhand and DD Assam, have been added to the bouquet of DD channels to serve the needs of areas which were earlier ignored.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Doordarshan’s international English News channel DD India has seen phenomenal growth lately. In terms of TV reach, DD India recently became number one English News channel in the country. Even the viewership for DD India has witnessed a consistent upward trend, registering a whopping total growth of almost 150%. Staying true to its mandate with which it was launched by Prasar Bharati in January 2019, DD India has now become India’s window to the world with reach to Korea, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Maldives, Australia, USA, UK, Canada and more than 190 countries through Satellite and OTT platforms.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: To cover as much area and population as possible across the country, All India Radio network has also expanded its footprint from 412 FM channels in 2017 to 514 in 2021 and from 413 stations in 2017 to 485 in 2021. This has further been augmented by more than 40 satellite radio channels available through DD FreeDish accessible across the land mass of India.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Prasar Bharati has expanded social media base of DD and AIR with more than 300 Twitter handles, 190+ YouTube channels and NewsOnAir App with more than 2 Million downloads. Digital is now integral to all broadcast activities with daily 800+ digital uploads happening across the networks of DD and AIR. NewsOnAir App has made AIR stations accessible across the world in more than 190 countries. The App has around 270 AIR live-streams.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: To make the public broadcaster’s content more inclusive, Doordarshan now provides sign language commentary for major events like Republic Day, Mann Ki Baat, and weekly Cabinet briefings. To make the public broadcaster’s content more inclusive, Doordarshan now provides sign language commentary for major events like Republic Day, Mann Ki Baat, and weekly Cabinet briefings.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Preserving and restoring India’s culture, tradition and history, Prasar Bharati Archives digitized rare audio-video content exclusively available with All India Radio and Doordarshan since 1930s.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: As an effort towards realizing PM Modi’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat in broadcasting, Prasar Bharati has also established a Centre of Excellence for Media and Broadcasting Technologies at IIT Kanpur, to explore direct to mobile 5G broadcasting, AI and other emerging areas.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In May 2020, Doordarshan and All India Radio began broadcasting weather reports on Mirpur, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in their prime time news bulletins. Pakistan had rejected this move by India, terming it as a "legally void" action to change the status of the region.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: As laid down in the Prasar Bharati Act, Prasar Bharati had to develop its own news dissemination arm, which was not acted upon till 2019 when Prasar Bharati launched its digital arm Prasar Bharati News Services (PBNS). In the beginning, PBNS focused on creating a presence on and disseminating content through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. During pandemic, PBNS Telegram channel was set up to distribute text, videos, audio and photographs instantly and share accurate information to newsrooms, free-of-cost. Media reports suggest that this news service, which is free to use for now, is likely to be made a subscription-based service going forward. The public broadcaster is readying an internal IT platform to aggregate all content generated by Prasar Bharati resource persons across India, along with wire services that the public broadcaster subscribes to.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Obsolete technologies are being replaced with new technologies. Starting from 2017, more than 1200 old technology Analog Transmitters have been phased out and 23 Digital Transmitters have been installed at 19 locations across the country.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: E-Office operation has been implemented across all offices all over the country – Started in 2019 to make the office operations efficient, faster and paperless; all 577 Prasar Bharati network offices across the country adopted it by mid-2021. This has drastically reduced average time taken to clear files from seven days to 24 hours. This has also saved organisation's expenditure on paper by 45% between August 2019 and June 2021.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: On the revenue and expenditure front, 150 crore per annum has been the average operating surplus between 2017 and 2021, thanks to 120% growth in FreeDish revenue, 200% growth in Digital, reduction in DD – AIR public ad spend by 70%, and other expenditure rationalization initiatives like 60% decrease in expenditure on obsolete modes of broadcasting.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In pursuance of its vision to expand the global reach of DD India channel, to put forth India's perspective on various international developments on global platforms and to showcase India's culture and values to the world, India's public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ‘Yupp TV’, an over-the-top (OTT) platform, which is a gateway for television viewers across the globe. With this, DD India is now available on the OTT platform of Yupp TV in USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. DD India, Prasar Bharati's international channel, is India's window to the world. The channel through its various programmes offers international viewers India's perspective on all domestic and global developments. Available in more than 190 countries, DD India also acts as a bridge between India and Indian Diaspora spread across the world.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Prasar Bharati has collaborated with public broadcasters of more than 30 countries including Australia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Korea, Bangladesh and Nepal in the field of media and broadcasting. Through this, Doordarshan channels have been made available for viewing in many of these countries. Prasar Bharati engages in co-production, joint broadcasting and exchange of programmes across multiple genres. These agreements also facilitate exchange of professionals for training purposes.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Doordarshan is hosting the international finals of Robocon 2022 in August. The Robot competition, which is organised by Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and hosted by different member countries every year, will be held in New Delhi in 2022. Prasar Bharati has created a page on its website for more information related to DD Robocon 2022. You can visit the page here -https://newsonair.com/robocon2022/


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Doordarshan and All India Radio channels are available in more than 190 countries across the world. Doordarshan's English News channel DD India has reach to 190+ countries through Satellite, OTT platforms like Yupp TV & Korean platform MyK and Prasar Bharati's NewsOnAir App.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: More than 240 streams of All India Radio are available on NewsOnAir App which has reach to more than 190 countries. Some of these All India Radio streams like Vividh Bharati, AIR Punjabi and AIR News 24*7 are quite popular in various parts of the world from Europe to Africa and West Asia to North America, including countries like UK, France, Ireland, Kenya, US, Canada, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: On 21 March 2022, Prasar Bharati signed an MoU with Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Australia's public service broadcaster to boost co-operation in the field of broadcasting. This has expanded the reach of DD News, DD India and multiple language services of DD News amongst the Indian diaspora in Australia.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In February 2020, major American and European TV News Networks carried DD India's coverage of the then US President Donald Trump's India visit.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In December 2020, Prasar Bharati achieved another global milestone in broadcasting with the election of CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati as the Vice President of Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), one of the largest broadcasting associations in the world.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In 2017, three years after Sam Pitroda-led expert committee on Prasar Bharati had recommended a comprehensive manpower audit of Doordarshan and All India Radio, media reports alleged that not only minimal action was taken on the Sam Pitroda Committee report of February 2014 to revitalise Prasar Bharati, but also the Department of Expenditure had expressed its inability to undertake the work of manpower audit despite assurances in reply to several questions in the Parliament.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In November 2018, through tweets, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati said, “The 151st Board Meeting of Prasar Bharati held earlier in the week was one of the most productive meetings on the wide range of issues on which decisions were taken. An important and long pending decision was on the manpower audit recommended by Sam Pitroda Committee. Happy to share that we are finally kicking off the manpower audit of Prasar Bharati, encompassing Doordarshan and Akashvani AIR, over the next many months. We will be assisted by EY India in this project which will lay out the future blueprint for India’s public service broadcaster.”


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In February 2021, findings were completed by Ernst and Young, which suggested alterations. The findings show that nearly half the organisation's 25,000 employees are employed in the engineering division, whereas the corresponding strength for BBC is at a little over 10%. The content team at Prasar Bharti constitutes less than 20% of the workforce, while BBC's content team accounts for 70%. Manpower costs account for over 60% of Prasar Bharati's expenses, and just around 30% of BBC's.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Over last five years, Prasar Bharati's TV (DD) and Radio (AIR) network has undergone major transformations in the field of technology, content and broadcasting. The number of IT-based portals and Apps for ease of doing business (external) stood at nil in 2017. In 2021, it stands at five. IT-based portals (internal) now stand at two, while in 2017 it was nil.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Innovative efforts in Audience research – Prasar Bharati's Audience Research team releases weekly NewsOnAir Radio Live-stream Rankings (Global & Domestic).


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Inclusive Coverage – Sign Language commentary for special events, including big sporting events and Mann Ki Baat.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Radio – TV Integration – Visual Radio initiatives like visual versions of Mann Ki Baat, Rangoli and TV Visual Commentary on YouTube.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: International brand of Doordarshan – Expressions of Interest for blue print to make an international brand of Doordarshan being reviewed.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: DD India – Doordarshan's International channel DD India is available in 37 countries. It is now also available on Hotstar and iTV platforms in United States.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: NewsOnAir App – The App has more than two million downloads and is available in more than 150 countries. It offers more than 270 radio and TV live-streams.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: DD FreeDish – DD Free Dish is the largest DTH operator in the country with reach to more than 43 Million Households in 2022. This figure stood at just 22 Million in 2017. The platform has 167 TV channels, including 50+ dedicated Educational channels and 48 Radio channels. In 2020–21, it generated revenue of more than Rs 700 Crore. This was an impressive jump from Rs 250 Crore in 2017.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Prasar Bharati News Services – PBNS has established itself as the digital news wing of Prasar Bharati through its Telegram Channel and Twitter handle. Its Twitter handle has 100K+ followers and Telegram channel has 15K+ subscribers. PBNS has created a digital news gathering platform called NDMS which is being used by all stringers and part time Correspondents of DD and AIR across India.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Going Green – All India Radio has shifted its entire fleet to Electric vehicles for all its transportation needs. Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati flagged off a fleet of 26 Electric Vehicles at Akashvani Bhawan in New Delhi on 2 December 2021. The charging network for the Electric Vehicles has been laid by the Civil Construction Wing of Prasar Bharati.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: The footprint of Doordarshan has increased between 2017 and 2021. In 2017, the number of satellite channels stood at 23 as opposed to 36 in 2021.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: DD FreeDish becomes largest DTH platform – Registering unparalleled growth in the TV distribution industry, Doordarshan FreeDish has become the largest DTH platform with reach to more than 43 Million households. With improved auction processes leading to addition of better quality & quantity of channels in various genres, between 2017 and 2022 alone, the Free DTH service of Doordarshan clocked a stellar growth of almost 100% from 22 Million in 2017 to 43 Million in 2022. Recently released FICCI-EY Report 2022 corroborates why and how DD FreeDish continues its strong growth trajectory, “Free Television continued to grow its base to reach an estimated 43 Million subscribers on the back of less expensive television sets, economic issues, and addition of new channels to the platform.” The report quotes FreeDish distributors mentioning year on year growth in sales of DD FreeDish set-top boxes. In stark comparison to 22 Million subscribers in 13 years between 2004 and 2017, DD FreeDish's growth over the last 5 years stands out. In just five years between 2017 and 2022, FreeDish has added another 21 Million subscribers, taking the total to 43 Million. Initiated by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government in early 2000s, DD FreeDish, then known as DD Direct Plus, was subsequently launched in 2004. After being revamped during the Narendra Modi-led NDA government era, the platform saw rapid growth in recent years. Over the past seven years, since 2015, the subscription base of DD FreeDish has expanded significantly by more than 100%. Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati claims that such growth of DD FreeDish is a result of a 2019 change in policy, “Changes were made to how FreeDish DTH slot was being auctioned. From an earlier system where auctions were held randomly throughout the year, we have switched to an annual e-Auction system. Further, from just two categories of slots, we have moved to five categories of slots based on genre and language. This helped bring differential pricing to these slots. Lastly, the e-Auction methodology was also changed to ensure competition and prevent cartelisation with a progressive increase in the reserve price. The cumulative impact of these policy changes has resulted in the growth of FreeDish revenues.”


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Indicating that the growth of DD FreeDish is impacting the pay TV market in India, an article published by the Mint says that the Public service broadcaster Prasar Bharati's free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) service – DD FreeDish – is on a roll. In the last two years of the pandemic, millions of viewers have migrated to the platform that offers entertainment without any monthly charges unlike the cable or DTH operators that they subscribed to. Even private satellite TV broadcasters admit to the phenomenal growth of DD FreeDish in recent years, especially during covid when economic stress pushed low-income groups, rural and semi-rural consumers to cut their cable bills and opt for a free service.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In collaboration with Prasar Bharati, renowned Chef Sanjeev Kapoor has launched two new Dishes in the name of India's largest DTH platform DD FreeDish – 'DD FreeDish Hing ka Achar' and 'DD FreeDish Aam ki Launji'. This is with the advent of Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's dedicated food channel 'Food Food' on DD FreeDish. This is first time that a dedicated food channel has come on board DD FreeDish.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: On the occasion of silver jubilee celebrations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, MoS I&B Dr L Murugan elaborated upon the reforms undertaken at Doordarshan. He talked about how phase-out of Analog Terrestrial Transmitters has resulted in availability of valuable spectrum. He also spoke about the role of DD FreeDish DTH as the largest platform coming to the aid of students during COVID.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Prasar Bharati's English News channel DD India has seen phenomenal growth both on TV and Digital. It has more than two lakh subscribers on YouTube. In terms of TV reach, DD India is number one English News channel in the country. As per BARC data, DD India reaches more than 8 Million viewers, highest in the English News genre. Its closest competitors are able to manage only around half the reach of DD India. Even the viewership for DD India has been witnessing a consistent upward weekly growth, registering a whopping total growth of almost 150%.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Living up to its mandate with which it was launched by Prasar Bharati in January 2019, DD India has now become India's window to the world with reach to more than 190 countries through Satellite, OTT platforms and NewsOnAir App. As envisaged, DD India has established itself as a global influencer on India related issues through its sharp analysis & commentary, thought provoking views/opinions and cutting edge visual presentation.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: DD India also acts as a bridge between India and Indian Diaspora spread across the world. The channel through its various programmes offers international viewers India's perspective on all domestic and global developments. Some of the high viewership shows on DD India are India Ideas, World Today, Indian Diplomacy, DD Dialogue, News Night etc.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: From 413 in 2017, the number of All India Radio stations has gone up to 485 in 2021. All India Radio's FM stations are now reaching 70 percent of the Indian population. As part of Prasar Bharati's drive to phase out obsolete technologies, the number of Short Wave and Medium Wave stations has come down from 48 to 12 and 148 to 128 respectively between 2017 and 2021.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Since 2017, Prasar Bharati has shifted its focus to digital first which has rendered promising results with a digital network spread across more than 300 Twitter handles, 190 YouTube channels, multiple news websites and NewsOnAir App with more than two million downloads. The digital network viewership growth has witnessed a 66% rise since 2017. Now Digital has become integral to all Prasar Bharati activities with daily 800+ digital uploads happening across the network, so that all in-house produced news and non-news content is available for on-demand consumption on digital platforms. NewsOnAir App has been a game-changer with 270+ radio and TV live-streams.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Between 2017 and 2022, Prasar Bharati's digital platforms across the country have together written a brilliant growth story with many of its YouTube channels already in the Million club and multiple others inching closer to the milestone, together taking the current total YouTube subscription base to more than two crores. In 2021, more than 185 YouTube channels of Doordarshan and All India Radio together registered more than a billion views. Their ‘watch time’ for the entire duration of 2021 summed up to a figure of 94 Million Hours. YouTube channels of both DD News and DD National crossed 4 Million Subscribers in 2021. Prasar Bharati's App NewsOnAir clocked a listenership of 214 Million+ in 2021. Prasar Bharati's digital platforms in the remotest areas of Northeast registered significant milestones in 2021, by together clocking more than 220 Million Views and 1 Million+ Subscribers on YouTube.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Prasar Bharati's National Archives, India's oldest and biggest audio-visual Archives, has an exclusive collection of rare recordings of historical value – interviews, documentaries, features, music, radio plays, etc. It is a treasure trove of not only the memorable performances of the great artistes, who have contributed to India's rich cultural, music and dance heritage but also a collection of rare media assets related to important events like Independence Day celebrations, Republic Day Parades, address to the nation by Prime Ministers, Presidents etc. as well as other important broadcasts since the advent of broadcasting in our country. These rare assets are in the form of sound recordings and audio visual footage in all genres like music, dance, drama, interviews, short films, documentaries, feature films etc.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Archival activities started in the form of Transcription Service of Radio recordings on 3 April 1954, with transcription of speeches of all dignitaries, especially the presidents and prime ministers of India. Though informal archiving had been there in the country before 1954, setting up of transcription service converted it into an organized activity. Doordarshan Archives was established in 2004 with an objective to digitize and preserve the valuable audio-visual footages. Initially the archival setups in AIR and Doordarshan grew separately under their respective verticals. In 2018, these separate setups were combined and brought under a common umbrella as a new vertical ‘Prasar Bharati Archives’.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Radio Autobiographies are one of the unique collections in the Archives of Prasar Bharati, wherein audio autobiography of eminent personalities who have made invaluable contributions in different fields of nation-building is recorded. Besides being anecdotal about the lives and works of the personalities, these Radio Autobiographies also chronicle the contemporary history of India narrated through the life's journey of these eminent personalities.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In his Radio Autobiography recorded by All India Radio in 1986, India's then leading Industrialist and former Chairman of Tata Group Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata recalls his memories of the Emergency era, his conversations with Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi on the excesses during the Emergency. Recollecting one of his interactions with Indira Gandhi in the beginning of Emergency, JRD Tata said, “When she declared Emergency, I went to see her. I said, Indira ji, why did you have to put all these people in jail including old people like Morarji Desai. She said, because they were plotting against me. I can't have people against me from within.”


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In an interaction with All India Radio in January 1986, Sahitya Akademi Award winner and renowned poet Amrita Pritam said that in popular culture, people count Hinduism as one of the religions along with Islam, Christianity, etc. But in reality, Hinduism is not a religion. Everyone born in Hindustan is a Hindu.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: This treasure trove is being digitized and made available on Prasar Bharati Archives YouTube channel in public interest for academic purposes. Apart from the content mentioned above, audio of around 50 original Constituent Assembly Speeches from 1946–1949 have been uploaded on this YouTube channel.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Priceless recordings of the likes of maestros Ustad Bismillah Khan, MS Subbulakshmi, Begum Akhtar, M Balamuralikrishna and the epic Ramcharitmanas, among others are part of Prasar Bharati archives and are available on the counter at Akashwani Bhawan on Parliament Street in Delhi.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Prasar Bharati Archives has contributed significantly to PradhanMantri Sangrahalaya, inaugurated by PM Modi on 14 April 2022, providing about 206 hours of audio and 53 hours of video content. This includes Address to Constituent Assembly (Tryst with Destiny), Broadcast to the Nation on 1st Independence Day, Oath-taking ceremony, Inauguration of Atomic Energy Establishment and Opening of the 1st Atomic Reactor, Declaration of Emergency, Address to the UN General Assembly, Non-Aligned Conference, Inauguration of Delhi Metro and much more.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: From among the rare audio-video content of historical, political and cultural significance available in Prasar Bharati Archives, we have created decade-wise YouTube playlists of such content starting from 1930s till 2000s.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: DD National's TV series based on pet care ‘Best Friend Forever’ won ENBA Award 2021 for the best in-depth Hindi series at the 14th edition of the Exchange4media News Broadcasting Awards (ENBA).


title: Prasar Bharati

text: DD Kisan's show ‘Apna Pashu Chikitsak’ won ENBA Special award 2021 for best campaign for social cause (Hindi).


title: Prasar Bharati

text: TV and Radio shows produced by Doordarshan and All India Radio respectively got multiple awards at the ABU – UNESCO Peace Media Awards 2021 at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Doordarshan's programme 'DEAFinitely Leading the Way' won an award under ‘Living Well with Super Diversity’ category, while All India Radio's programme ‘Living on the edge – The coastal lives’ won another award in the category of ‘Ethical & Sustainable Relationship with Nature’.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Channel Manager at Prasar Bharati Sports Abhishek Dubey and Senior Content Manager Pravin Sinha received Panchjanya-Organiser Media Awards 2022 for Sports.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Divya Bharadwaj got the Panchjanya-Organiser Media Awards 2022 for Environment for the DD National show Rag Rag mein Ganga.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Umesh Chaturvedi of All India Radio News was awarded with the prestigious Devrishi Narad journalism award.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In 2010, as many as 24 candidates out of the 30 selected for the posts of journalists in Doordarshan News were alleged to have been appointed on the basis of political considerations. For example, one of the successful candidates was closely related to a former Congress Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, another successful candidate was the daughter of a sitting Congress Union minister, and a third was a close relative of Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: The number of applicants called for interview was increased from 25 to 35 to accommodate the daughter of a Congress politician, who held the 33rd rank, and would have otherwise been eliminated at the cut-off stage. Another successful candidate, Anika Kalra Kalha, was not even called for an audition and reporting skills test, and the remark in the relevant columns read “Did not qualify for this stage”. Similarly, the weightage given to interviews was arbitrarily increased two days before they were held.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In 2014, over allegations of DD editing out portions of interview of the then BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi, then Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had admitted that some parts of the interview "were apparently edited" and pointed a finger at then I&B Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant the "operational autonomy" that the public broadcaster had been seeking for years.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In August 2017, then Tripura CM Manik Sarkar alleged that Doordarshan and All India Radio had refused to broadcast his Independence Day speech unless he reworked it.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In September 2017, following instructions from the ministry of information and broadcasting, Doordarshan had put on hold prime time slots auctioned to Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms and Saaibaba Telefilms.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Fake offer/appointment letters for jobs at Prasar Bharati's DD Kisan channel were given by scamsters on fake letter heads of DD Kisan.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In September 2017, following a complaint of alleged abuse of dominance with regard to infrastructural facilities for FM radio broadcasting, Competition Commission ordered a fresh investigation against Prasar Bharati.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In March 2018, then Prasar Bharati Chairman Dr. A Surya Prakash said that the I&B Ministry had been refusing funds to Prasar Bharati since December 2017 and that the funds for the month of January and February were drawn from the broadcaster's contingency funds to pay its employees’ salaries.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In early 2019, Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry floated a draft Bill ‘Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2019’, which would have given Ministry the power to appoint Director Generals of Doordarshan and All India Radio directly, instead of the then practice of recruitment of DGs through Prasar Bharati Board. The Bill sought to remove the provision to establish a recruitment board ‘Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board’ (PBRB). According to the explanatory note of the draft Bill, “As per Section 9 of the Prasar Bharati Act, officers and employees of the public broadcaster were to be appointed in ‘consultation’ with the Recruitment Board, which was to be established as per Section 10 of the Act. However, the Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board (PBRB) could not be established due to one or another reason” and the ministry has now decided “not to establish PBRB” and remove the relevant section of the Act which empowered Prasar Bharati to set up recruitment boards.” Soon after, the notification seeking public feedback on the draft Bill was removed from the Ministry’s website, and another notice was issued which said that “the matter has been kept in abeyance till further orders”.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In April 2019, then Congress President Rahul Gandhi's office did not respond to Prasar Bharati CEO's request for Gandhi's interview by DD News. Earlier that month, Congress had submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission with allegations of bias in the political coverage by the public broadcaster.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In October 2019, Prasar Bharati suspended a Chennai Doordarshan Kendra official citing "disciplinary proceedings". According to media reports, Doordarshan Kendra assistant director R Vasumathi had allegedly blocked the telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at IIT Madras.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In March 2020, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati turned down BBC invite for an awards function, alleging that the BBC did “one-sided” reporting on Delhi violence in February 2020. In his letter to BBC Director General, Vempati said, “I must respectfully decline the invitation in view of the recent coverage of the BBC of certain incidents of violence in Delhi.”


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In February 2021, Twitter blocked the account of Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati for using a hashtag which was deemed inappropriate by the government. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who chairs the Parliamentary Committee on Data Protection Bill, condemned blocking of Prasar Bharati CEO's account, saying that Twitter has "victimised the person who told you to take the right step”. The account was restored later in the day.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In October 2021, a few media reports alleged that Prasar Bharati is shutting down transmission from DD Kalaburagi and DD Silchar. Taking note of these reports, Prasar Bharati clarified that broadcast reform steps to phase out obsolete analog terrestrial TV transmitters was being misrepresented. That these DD Centres will continue to generate program content for broadcasting on the satellite channels of Doordarshan dedicated to their respective States, apart from maintaining their presence on digital media via YouTube and on social media. For instance, program content generated by DD Silchar and DD Kalaburagi shall now be broadcast on DD Assam and DD Chandana respectively.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: In an investigative article published on May 24, 2022, Newslaundry alleged that Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati has immense power in Prasar Bharati. Newslaundry went on to elaborate upon how Vempati has acquired such powers. They quote from I&B Minister Anurag Thakur's speech in the Parliament, “Vempati was acting as chairman of the board in accordance with section 8 of the Prasar Bharati Broadcasting Corporation of India Act 1990 as the tenure of the previous chairman Dr A Suryaprakash had ended in February 2020.”


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Newslaundry quotes an anonymous Prasar Bharati official to allege that Vempati has direct connection with PM Modi. According to Newslaundry, a senior Prasar Bharati official said that Vempati has the advantage of being in direct contact with PM Modi which is qualification enough to move forward in one's career today. Newslaundry also mentions that Vempati received the “Dataquest Pathbreaker award” from Dataquest magazine for his “outstanding role” in Modi's campaign.


title: Prasar Bharati

text: Newslaundry further alleges that Vempati doesn't leave any chance to please the government, “That’s why he did not attend the BBC programme when questions were raised against the government after the Delhi riots. That was in March 2020. Vempati had declined an invitation to the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year Awards Night, citing the corporation’s “one-sided version” of the communal violence in Delhi the previous week.” Adding to this allegation of pleasing the government, Newslaundry further highlights that when Modi inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi, Vempati boasted about the “extensive preparations” made by DD for the visit, and that “about 146 TV channels in India carried Doordarshan’s live coverage of the day”.


title: Manifesto (Roxy Music album)

text: Manifesto is the sixth studio album by English rock band Roxy Music. It was released in March 1979 by E.G. in the United Kingdom, Polydor in Europe and Atco in the United States.


title: Manifesto (Roxy Music album)

text: Following an almost four-year recording hiatus, "Manifesto" was Roxy Music's first studio album since 1975's "Siren". The first single from "Manifesto" was "Trash", which peaked at number 40 on the UK Singles Chart. The second single, the disco-tinged "Dance Away", was more successful, peaking at number two in the UK on 26 May 1979, beaten to the top spot for three weeks by Blondie's "Sunday Girl". It became one of the band's biggest hits, and was also the ninth best-selling single in the UK in 1979. The song was also released as a 12" extended version (running at six and half minutes), a format that had started to become popular in the late 1970s. The third single from the album was a re-recorded version of "Angel Eyes", which was far more electronic and "disco" in nature than the power-pop album version. An extended 12" mix was also released. The single also made the UK top five, peaking at number four in August. The album itself peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart. In the United States, the album peaked at number 23 on the "Billboard" 200, making it Roxy Music's highest-charting album in the US.


title: Manifesto (Roxy Music album)

text: The cover design which featured a variety of mannequins (a concept also used for the covers of the singles from the album), was created by Bryan Ferry with fashion designer Antony Price and American TV actress Hilary Thompson amongst others. The picture disc version of the album featured a version of the design in which the mannequins are unclothed. The cover's typography, as well as the album's title, were inspired by the first edition of Wyndham Lewis's literary magazine "Blast".


title: Manifesto (Roxy Music album)

text: On the original vinyl release, side one was labelled "East Side" and side two was labelled "West Side".


title: Manifesto (Roxy Music album)

text: After the song became a hit, the second pressings of the album substituted the original version of "Dance Away" with its single remix. Later on, the LP version of "Angel Eyes" was also replaced by the more popular re-recorded version released as a single. The original CD versions of the album used the revised track list, until the LP version of "Angel Eyes" was restored in the 1999 remaster. "Manifesto" was finally released on CD in its original version on "The Complete Studio Recordings" box in 2012. The first LP version ‘Angel Eyes’ first appeared on the U.S. compilation CD “The Atlantic Collection” while the first LP version of “Dance Away” appeared on CD for the first time in 1995 on "The Thrill of It All" box set.


title: Manifesto (Roxy Music album)

text: "Manifesto" was positively received by critics but not as well regarded as previous Roxy Music albums. In his review for "Melody Maker", Richard Williams stated:


title: Manifesto (Roxy Music album)

text: It was ranked 30th in "The Village Voice" Pazz & Jop critics' poll of the best albums of 1979. The 1992 "Rolling Stone Album Guide" gave the album four stars and says "the regrouped Roxy seems better for the rest: deftly blending fresh rhythms into its signature sound, shortening the musical passages and concentrating more on song craft.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The Ardeatine massacre, or Fosse Ardeatine massacre (), was a mass killing of 335 civilians and political prisoners carried out in Rome on 24 March 1944 by German occupation troops during the Second World War as a reprisal for the Via Rasella attack in central Rome against the SS Police Regiment Bozen the previous day.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Subsequently, the Ardeatine Caves site ("Fosse Ardeatine") was declared a Memorial Cemetery and National Monument open daily to visitors. Every year, on the anniversary of the slaughter and in the presence of the senior officials of the Italian Republic, a solemn state commemoration is held at the monument in honour of the fallen. Each year, 335 names are called out, a simple roll call of the dead, to reinforce that 335 discrete individuals symbolise a collective entity.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: In July 1943, the Allies landed on the island of Sicily, preparing to invade the mainland, and Rome was bombed for the first time. On 24 July 1943, the Fascist Grand Council, which the dictator Benito Mussolini had not convened since 1939, met and overwhelmingly voted no confidence in Mussolini. The following day, anxious to extricate his country from an unsustainable war, King Victor Emanuel III, the titular head of the Italian state and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces under Mussolini, appointed Marshal Pietro Badoglio to head a new military government. He then ordered his gendarmerie, the Carabinieri, to arrest and imprison Mussolini.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: On 13 August 1943, Rome was bombed again, and the Badoglio government began secret surrender negotiations with the Allies in Sicily, although still outwardly allied to Nazi Germany. In accordance with the Pope's wishes, Badoglio also unilaterally declared Rome an open city, i.e., a demilitarized zone, a declaration the Allies would refuse to recognise and the Germans to respect. The Germans, anticipating an Italian defection, meanwhile began moving more and more troops into Italy (Operation Achse). Foreseeing a German invasion, a coalition of Anti-Fascist parties and Monarchists formed the Committee of National Liberation (CLN). On 3 September 1943, the Badoglio government signed an unconditional surrender, which U.S. General Eisenhower made public on the eve of the Fifth Army's amphibious landing at Salerno (8 September). At the same time, Badoglio issued the Badoglio Proclamation, directing Italian troops to end hostilities against the Allies but to oppose attacks "from any other quarter".


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The following day, the German army began moving in on Rome, and that night the King and Badoglio fled the city for Pescara, whence by sea to Bari, leaving a leadership vacuum. The Royal Italian Army, although outnumbering the German soldiers three to one, was leaderless, poorly equipped, and in chaos. After a failed resistance in the working-class neighborhood at the Porta San Paolo and the Pyramid of Cestius by remaining loyalist soldiers, carabinieri (including a school of cadets) and civilians, the Germans occupied Rome. They announced the imposition of German military law with summary execution for violators.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Three days later (on 12 September), Nazi commandos led by Waffen-SS officer Otto Skorzeny, tracked down and rescued Mussolini from his hidden prison in the Gran Sasso and set him up in the puppet regime of the so-called "Republic of Salò" in Northern Italy. In October 1943 the Nazis rounded up and deported the Jews of Rome for extermination at Auschwitz and also made numerous mass roundups of non-Jewish male civilians for forced labour. Meanwhile, General Mark Clark's Fifth Army in Salerno suffered severe setbacks, and General Eisenhower and other Allied leaders began concentrating their attention on the imminent invasion of France, temporarily neglecting Italy.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: In December, the armed Partisan Resistance began to strike German forces in Rome. The Germans responded with raids carried out by mixed Gestapo and Italian Fascist police militias on Vatican institutions, known to be harbouring prominent CNL members and other Anti-Fascists. In January 1944, news of the surprise Allied landing behind enemy lines at Anzio (Operation Shingle), only 30 miles from Rome, created temporary euphoria among the Roman populace along with a dangerous relaxation of caution on the part of Resistance members, that enabled the Nazis to arrest and torture many of its most important leaders. In the meantime, General Clark's attempt to link up the Fifth Army with the Anzio troops was unsuccessful, as the Anzio forces were held back by a line of German fortifications hastily constructed using forced civilian labour.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: On 23 March 1944, a column of the German 11th Company, 3rd Battalion, SS Police Regiment Bozen was attacked by an ambush of Partisans, while marching and singing on a prescribed route that led through the Piazza di Spagna into the narrow street of Via Rasella. Organised by the Nazis to intimidate and suppress the Resistance, the battalion had been raised in October 1943 from ethnic German-speakers of the northern Italian province of South Tyrol, a territory that Adolf Hitler had annexed to the German Reich after the September "betrayal" by the Italian government. Many of its citizens had since opted for German citizenship. The soldiers of the battalion were veterans of the Royal Italian Army who had seen action on the Eastern Front and had chosen service in the SS rather than face another tour in the East with the "Wehrmacht".


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The attack was carried out by 16 partisans of the Communist-dominated resistance organisation "Gruppo d'Azione Patriottica" ("Patriotic Action Group") or GAP. An improvised explosive device was prepared consisting of 12 kilogrammes of TNT packed in a steel case. This was inserted into a bag containing an additional six kilograms of TNT and TNT filled iron tubing. Although reported as having been thrown from a building, the bomb had actually been hidden in a rubbish cart, pushed into position by a Partisan disguised as a street cleaner, while others acted as lookouts. The fuse was lit when the police were forty seconds from the bomb. The blast caused the immediate deaths of 28 German SS policemen and may have killed two civilian bystanders, one of whom, Piero Zuccheretti, was an eleven-year-old boy, although he might as well have been killed by the Germans firing in response; it is unknown.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: More would die over the next few days. All sixteen Partisans, some of whom fired on the German column, succeeded in melting away into the crowd unscathed.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The German police attaché and commander of the Security Police in Rome, SS "Obersturmbannführer" Herbert Kappler was on the scene soon afterwards to supervise the investigation. That evening he was summoned to the headquarters of the German Armed Forces Commandant in Rome, "Luftwaffe" "Generalmajor" Kurt Mälzer, who had decided that the killings called for reprisals.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: They agreed that the execution of ten Italians for each German policeman killed was a suitable ratio. Mälzer, who also proposed burning down part of Rome, passed this on to General Eberhard von Mackensen, the commander of the Fourteenth Army, whose jurisdiction included Rome. General Mackensen endorsed the recommendation. In turn, the staff of the German Commander-in-Chief South ("Oberbefehlshaber Süd"), passed this on to the "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" (OKW). That night, Adolf Hitler authorised the reprisal, stipulating that it be carried out within 24 hours. Commander-in-Chief South "Generalfeldmarschall" Albert Kesselring, considered this an order, one he interpreted as calling for the execution of Italians who had been previously sentenced to death. He was assured by Kappler that sufficient prisoners were available.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: However, Kappler had only four prisoners sentenced to death in his "Hausgefängnis" (private prison) at SS headquarters in the German Embassy on 145 Via Tasso (now the Museum of the Liberation of Rome); plus 17 serving long sentences; 167 deemed "worthy of death"; and two to four civilians who had been rounded up in the Via Rasella area on suspicion of involvement. Kappler's superior, SS "Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei" Wilhelm Harster, suggested making up the numbers from the 57 Jews also in Nazi custody. By noon on 24 March, Kappler had a list of 271 victims, each with his crime listed against his name, except for the Jews, who were simply listed as "Jew". By this time the death toll from the Via Rasella bombing had risen to 32. (One more would die while the reprisal was underway; the death toll eventually reaching 33.) To make up the numbers, "Questore" Pietro Caruso, chief of the Fascist police in Rome, offered some Italians from his Regina Coeli prison, among them Maurizio Giglio, who had been one of his own lieutenants, before being unmasked as a double agent working for the American OSS in charge of radio communications with the Fifth Army. Because of the time limit that Hitler had imposed, Mälzer and Kappler agreed that the victims would have to be shot in the back of the head at close range rather than by conventional firing squad.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The men of the regiment Bozen, the unit which was hit in the attack, were offered to avenge their comrades but they refused to do it in that way.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The massacre was perpetrated without prior public notice in a little-frequented rural suburb of the city, inside the tunnels of the disused quarries of "pozzolana", near the Via Ardeatina. By mistake, a total of 335 Italian prisoners were taken, five in excess of the 330 called for. On 24 March, led by SS officers Erich Priebke and Karl Hass, they were transported to the Ardeatine caves in truckloads and then, in groups of five, put to death inside the caves. Because the killing squad mostly consisted of officers who had never killed before, Kappler had ordered several cases of cognac delivered to the caves to calm the officers' nerves. The officers were ordered to lead the doomed prisoners into the caves with their hands tied behind their backs and then have them kneel down so that the soldiers could fire a bullet directly into the cerebellum, ensuring that no more than one bullet would be needed per prisoner. Many were forced to kneel down over the bodies of those who had been killed before them because the cave had become filled with dead bodies. During the killings, the existence of the five extra prisoners was discovered, and it was decided to kill them anyway, in order to prevent the place of execution from becoming known.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The bodies of the victims were placed in piles, typically about a metre in height, and then buried under tons of rock debris when German military engineers set explosives to seal the caves and hide the atrocity. They remained summarily buried and abandoned for over a year inside the caves. Families of the victims were notified with excruciating slowness by an individual letter, if at all, a strategy of cover-up and concealment—"Night and Fog"—designed to confuse, grieve, and intimidate surviving relatives, according to Robert Katz.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Misconceptions about the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre abound. Foremost among these is the notion that the Partisans responsible for the Via Rasella attack were ordered to come forward and turn themselves in to the SS and wilfully declined to do so.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Although it is sometimes claimed that the reprisal victims were predominantly Jewish, only 75 of the 335 victims selected for death in the caves were Jewish, this having been a criterion for selection (because Jews were known to be marked for death anyway). In fact, the victims comprised, in Robert Katz's words, "rich, and poor, doctors and lawyers, workers and shopkeepers, artists and artisans, teachers and students, men and teenage boys from every walk of life, and even a man of God ... among them". The main concern of the SS had been speedy fulfilment of the quota. Some were residents of Via Rasella who were home at the time of the Partisan attack; others had been arrested and tortured for suspected Resistance and other anti-Fascist activities, while still others had been casually picked up on the streets or arrested at their homes on the basis of tips from Fascist informants. The youngest of them was 15 years old.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Political prisoners included members of the GAP, the PA, and the Monarchist Clandestine Military Front of the Resistance (FMRC), which included many policemen. Members of the Bandiera Rossa ("Red Flag") a dissident Communist Resistance group, constituted the largest group. One political prisoner, Padre Pietro Pappagallo, was one of the models for the character of Padre Pietro in Roberto Rossellini's pioneering neo-realist film "Rome, Open City", filmed in 1944. Another, perhaps the most celebrated, was the aristocratic Colonel Giuseppe Montezemolo (age 44), who, after the flight of the King and Badoglio, had elected to stay and go underground in Rome, disguised in mufti as a professor or "Ingegnere" (engineer), to organize and lead the FMRC, representing the Badoglio Government, with which he had been in continual radio contact up until his arrest on 25 January 1944.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Colonel Giuseppe Montezemolo's incredible courage under torture that included having his nails and teeth pulled out, became legendary. Another was General Simone Simoni, a war hero aged 64, who had endured torture with a blowtorch. The old soldier had replied to his captors, "My only regret is that I was not younger because there was so much more I could have done [for my country]". Neither man ever talked or in any way betrayed their network.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Besides Simoni, four more generals were among the executed, all members of the Clandestine Military Front: Vito Artale, Dardano Fenulli, Roberto Lordi, and Sabato Martelli Castaldi.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The design of the Fosse Ardeatine monument resulted from a national competition and was a collaboration between five architects (Nello Aprile, Cino Calcaprina, Aldo Cardelli, Mario Fiorentino & Giuseppe Perugini) and two sculptors (Francesco Coccia & Mirko Basaldella). The massive bronze gate by Mirko Basaldella used the ubiquitous barbed wire of battlefields and concentration camps as inspiration, merging it with the moving curlicues of a Tree of Life. The curved lines morph into a tangle of limbs reaching out across each other at those awkwardly bent angles characteristic of corpses. Also at the entrance is a colossal concrete statue by Francesco Coccia of three male figures standing together as one. Hands tied behind their backs, the three ages of man are bound together by ideals and fate—the youngest Fosse victim was 15, the oldest 70. Each face has a distinct expression portraying the range of emotions the men likely felt marching to their deaths in the quarry: despair, eyes half-closed in resignation, a resolute distant stare. Each face on the statue directs its gaze towards an important element of the memorial complex: the burial slab, the old quarries, and the forecourt. The memorial plaque outside the entry to the caves reads:


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: WAYFARERS THIRSTY FOR LIBERTY – WE WERE ROUNDED UP AT RANDOM – IN THE STREET AND IN JAIL – AS A REPRISAL CAST IN EN MASSE – SLAUGHTERED AND WALLED WITHIN THESE PITS – ITALIANS, DO NOT CURSE – MOTHERS, BRIDES, DO NOT WEEP – CHILDREN, CARRY WITH PRIDE – THE MEMORY – OF THE HOLOCAUST OF YOUR FATHERS – IF OUR SLAUGHTER – WILL HAVE HAD A PURPOSE BEYOND REVENGE – IT IS TO ENSHRINE THE RIGHT OF HUMAN EXISTENCE – AGAINST THE CRIME OF MURDER


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: WE WERE SLAUGHTERED IN THIS PLACE BECAUSE – WE FOUGHT AGAINST INTERNAL TYRANNY – FOR FREEDOM AND AGAINST THE FOREIGNER – FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE HOMELAND – WE DREAMT A FREE, JUST – AND DEMOCRATIC ITALY. MAY OUR SACRIFICE AND OUR BLOOD – SOW THE SEED AND ACT AS WARNING FOR – GENERATIONS TO COME.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: HERE WE WERE SLAUGHTERED – VICTIMS OF A HORRENDOUS SACRIFICE – MAY OUR SACRIFICE GIVE RISE TO A BETTER HOMELAND – AND TO LASTING PEACE AMONG THE PEOPLES.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The last phrase, taken from Penitential Psalm 130, was most likely chosen for its parallel significance in Christianity and Judaism, simultaneously speaking for 260 Christians and 75 Jews killed and buried side by side. The text is written in both Latin and Hebrew: "Clamavi ad Te, Domine";"שיר המעלות, ממעמקים קראתיך י-ה".


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: For a number of reasons, including (but not limited to): the large number of victims; the fact that many of them were innocent civilians casually taken only to make up the number of those to be killed; the cruel methods implemented (even by Nazi standards) to carry out the massacre; the fact that the reprisal order had come directly from Adolf Hitler, and the hiding of the bodies, which were buried summarily instead of being returned to their families - the slaughter became a symbol of the various massacres carried out against civilians in Italy, from 8 September 1943 until the German surrender on 8 May 1945.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: In December 2007, Giorgio Bettio, a city councillor of Treviso, Italy and member of the Northern League party, suggested that "With immigrants, we should use the same system the SS used, punish 10 of them for every slight against one of our citizens", in reference to Italy's current debate over immigration policies. This comment was met with public condemnation, and Bettio later said, "I certainly made a mistake in citing the SS." He claimed the incident had been "sensationalized" by the media.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: The Vatican's role in the massacre came under particular scrutiny following the publication of Robert Katz's first book, "Death in Rome" (1967), in which he speculated that Pope Pius XII had advance knowledge of the Nazi orders and did little to forestall it. Katz wrote later that he had put together "circumstantial evidence... from six separate sources, though no single element was conclusive." This charge was vigorously disputed by the Pope's defenders.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: In 1974, Katz was sued in the Roman courts by Pius's niece, Countess Elena Pacelli Rossignani. Katz was initially found guilty, but an appeals court overturned this initial ruling. The appeals court decision was in turn appealed by the prosecution. Further evidence ("the Governatorato document" - see below) was revealed; the court case was reconfigured; and Katz was found guilty of "intention to denigrate" Pius XII. Ultimately, however, the case was dismissed without a ruling on the matter at hand, "on the grounds of an amnesty dating back to 1970." Katz continued to publish various accusations against Pius XII until his death.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: In 1980, a relevant document ("the Governatorato document") was found in the Vatican archives and released by the Vatican. It was dated 24 March 1944, 10:15 a.m., and contained intelligence gathered only hours after the attack on the SS troops. Addressed to the Papal Secretariat, it showed that the Vatican had indeed heard that the Germans were planning to punish Italian citizens tenfold for the SS deaths. However, the information was received only five hours before the massacre took place; the informant's statement was short and vague as to source; and it provided no information in regards to time, place, or logistics:


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Katz elaborated on this in 2003 in "The Battle for Rome: The Germans, The Allies, The Partisans, and The Pope, September 1943 – June 1944", using evidence from recently released OSS and Vatican sources that certain German diplomats, notably Eugen Dollmann, Himmler's representative in Rome and German Consul Eitel Möllhausen had gone to Pope Pius' personal liaison to the German occupational authorities, Pankratius Pfeiffer, asking him to urge the Pope to intervene and limit reprisals on the grounds that they would inflame the Roman population and make the occupation (and negotiations for a separate peace with the Allies they all fervently wished for) even more difficult.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: According to Katz, the Secretariat of the Vatican believed that "the attack on Via Rasella had been undertaken to provoke the occupiers into an excessively repressive act and increase the people's hatred of the Germans. "This was what the Pope's liaison Padre Pancrazio had been told in the Vatican the night before [the reprisal]. It was also the opinion held by Dollman and Möllhausen. None of them seemed to believe that the Partisans meant to hurt the Germans as never before to extend the popularity of the Resistance" nor did they view the Via Rasella attack as a legitimate act of war. Instead, they viewed it as a tragic act of terrorism by Communists, as did the Vatican, and as some of its defenders still do. According to Joseph Lichten, author of a monograph defending Pius XII written after the publication of Rolf Hochhuth's play, "The Deputy":


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: In the aftermath of the massacre, Pope Pius XII debated whether to protest against the massacre but decided not to because, as one of his defenders reported, "all the convents, all the religious houses of Rome were full of refugees, Communists, Jews, democrats and anti-Fascists, ex-generals, etc. Pius XII had even suspended the rules for the cloister. If Pius XII had made a public protest, there would have been searches in all these houses and catastrophe would have ensued".


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Instead, a special editorial entitled "The Deeds in Via Rasella" appeared in the "semi-official" Vatican newspaper, the "Osservatore Romano", deploring the violence of "the guilty parties who escaped arrest" (presumably the Partisans, however Stephen Walker in his book "Hide and Seek" writes that "the wording is worthy of examination" and speculates that this is a reference to "the Nazis who rounded up over 300 people and then butchered them.") and urging Roman citizens to continue to exercise restraint to prevent further sacrifices of innocent people. "In the face of such deeds, every honest heart is left profoundly grieved in the name of humanity and Christian sentiment. Thirty-two victims on the one hand, and on the other, three-hundred-and-twenty persons sacrificed for the guilty parties who escaped arrest." Subsequently, the Nazi Occupation forces stepped up their hunt among Roman civilians for suspected Resistance supporters, whom it rounded up and tortured.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: In 1952, the new Italian Supreme Court declared the Via Rasella attack to have been a legitimate act of war after an appeal by Kappler's lawyers of his conviction of guilt in the Ardeatine Massacre.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: This decision was reaffirmed in 1999, when the Italian Supreme Court declared the Partisans immune from prosecution after a Roman prosecutor had unsuccessfully attempted to bring a suit against them for the death of the boy Piero Zuccheretti, who had been killed in Via Rasella. Historian Robert Wolfe finds "persuasive" Katz's characterisation of the Pope's decision to condemn the Partisans for the Via Rasella attack, rather than the Nazis for the reprisals, as evidence of "a moral failure" resulting from one of the "great misreadings of history".


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: In the 1990s, there was a revisionist campaign by "Il Giornale", a newspaper owned by Paolo Berlusconi, brother of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, to re-label the World War II Partisans responsible for the attack on Via Rasella as "terrorists". In response, the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation officially ruled that the act in Via Rasella had been a legitimate act of war and not a terrorist attack and ordered the publisher to pay punitive damages of 45 thousand euro. Nevertheless, some historians, such as Richard Raiber and István Deák, continue to imply that the Partisans were the equivalent of terrorists and were, moreover, responsible for avoidable suffering, thus offering some support for the official judgment of the Vatican at the time.


title: Ardeatine massacre

text: Historian Patrick Gallo, however, in "For Love and Country: The Italian Resistance" (2003), posited that the Rome-based Resistance not only undermined German morale but also achieved important strategic objectives and was hence not a useless provocation, as contended by critics, but an act of legitimate military significance in furthering the Allied victory.