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Should Asian media follow Sangat TV’s coverage?

In the first couple of days it started as the London riots, and then quickly turned into the UK riots, one TV channel deserves an accolade for its unique coverage, Sangat TV.

The brave one reporter and one cameraman coverage has gone into the heart of the Birmingham riots driving around feeding back live coverage and interviewing locals on Sky channel 847.

Sangat TV was the only UK broadcaster showing live scenes from Soho Road in Handsworth. The footage also included a Handsworth police station next to Holyhead School being set ablaze. On the second night of the Birmingham riots, the channel expanded its team by broadcasting live happenings from other parts of Birmingham including ��� West Bromwich, Smethwick, Handsworth and the City Centre. Sangat TV has echoed the sentiments of the community by helping the police with their riots operation. The channel has also shown assisting police by taking one of the policemen in the Sangat TV van to the thugs resulting in a couple more arrests.

The channel’s name has also been trending on Twitter meaning the ‘Sangat TV’ brand is one of the most cited topics on the social networking site in the UK. The channel’s coverage has also been shown on BBC News, Sky News, Fox News and NDTV 24×7.BizAsia.co.uk would like to applaud Sangat TV on their coverage, with special thanks to presenters Ranjit Singh Rana, Randhir Singh and Upinder Randhawa. Also cameraman Nirmal Singh.

Despite limited resources at a low budget station like Sangat TV, there has been next to nothing coverage from the major Asian TV channels such as Star TV, ZEE Network, Sony Entertainment Television Asia, Colors and Imagine Dil Se. While radio stations have been covering news updates hourly from Sky News, surprisingly there hasn�۪t been anything extra from any of the radio broadcasters. BBC Asian Network has been using clips from its BBC sources.

BizAsia.co.uk has contacted each of the broadcasters asking whether they will run any special bulletins on the UK riots, their replies will appear below. Sangat TV has confirmed that it will continue with its broadcast until there is peace in the city.

The broadcaster’s respond
NDTV 24×7 – We have been covering the riots in every news bulletin. However, we have a special bulletin at 7pm (IST) today. It’s called the Prime Time: UK Riots Spread and is being anchored by Amitabh Revi and Natasha Jog.

We then have another special segment at 9pm (IST) today during the ‘The 9 O’Clock News’ anchored by Sonia Singh analyzing the misfortunate incident.

We are planning another special on Friday. Details to be confirmed.

ZEE TV – Broadcasting two-minute bulletins from ZEE News every hour in the evening yesterday and more today if riots continue.