- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The press team of the BBC, Britain’s national broadcaster, on Tuesday (14) reacted to the visit made by income-tax officials at its offices in New Delhi and Mumbai in India saying they were fully cooperating with the ‘survey’.
In a tweet, it said, “The Income Tax Authorities are currently at the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are fully cooperating. We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible.”
The broadcaster’s response came hours after officials of the I-T department conducted a survey operation at the BBC’s offices as part of a probe into alleged evasion of tax.
The move also comes weeks after the BBC released a documentary series ‘India: The Modi Question’ on the 2002 riots in the western state of Gujarat delving into the role of the then state government led by Modi.
Sources in the UK government also spoke on the matter saying they were closely monitoring reports of tax surveys conducted at the offices of the BBC in India.
The opposition in India slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of prime minister Narendra Modi over the survey accusing it of showing signs of panic.
The Editors Guild of India (EGI) also reacted, tweeting, “EGI is deeply concerned about the IT “surveys” being carried out at the offices of BBC India. Is distressed by the continuing trend of government agencies being used to intimidate and harass news organisations that are critical of ruling establishment.”
EGI is deeply concerned about the IT “surveys” being carried out at the offices of BBC India. Is distressed by the continuing trend of government agencies being used to intimidate and harass news organisations that are critical of ruling establishment. pic.twitter.com/hM7ZkrdOiq
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) February 14, 2023
