Senior journalist A Surya Prakash was on Tuesday appointed chairman of the Prasar Prasar Bharati Board, filling a post which had been lying vacant for the last six months.

The appointment, which will be for three years, was made on the recommendation of a three-member committee headed by Vice President M Hamid Ansari and comprising Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju and I&B Secretary Bimal Julka, Information and Broadcasting Ministry said in a statement.

He will succeed another veteran journalist Mrinal Pande who completed her tenure on April 30 this year. Prasar Bharti Corporation, which was created by a 1990 Act of Parliament, is governed by the Prasar Bharati Board, which comprises a Chairman, an Executive Member (chief executive officer), a member (finance), a member (personnel), six part-time members, a representative of the ministry of information & broadcasting and the directors general of All India Radio and Doordarshan as ex-officio members.

The chairman is a part time member. Prakash is currently consulting editor of the Pioneer newspaper and a Distinguished Fellow at Delhi-based Vivekananda International Foundation, a think tank with which National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was also associated earlier.