The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has claimed that during the three-day Income Tax raid at its Delhi and Mumbai offices, authorities mistreated their journalists and interfered with the process of doing their jobs.
The statement from BBC was posted on its Hindi website, disputing the IT Department’s assertion that ‘the survey operation was done in a manner to permit sustained regular media/channel activity.’
‘… BBC journalists were prohibited from working for long periods of time. Police officers and personnel of the Income Tax Department also misbehaved with numerous journalists,’ said BBC Hindi.
‘ Journalists’ laptops were combed, their phones were tapped, and information about their working procedures was requested from them. Also, it was forbidden for the journalists in the Delhi office to write anything about this survey.’
‘Hindi and English journalists were prevented from working for longer even after senior editors continuously pressed for the job to begin. According to the BBC, journalists from both of these languages were only permitted to work in this way when they arrived close to the transmission time.’
The IT raid occurred just a few weeks after the broadcaster aired ‘India: The Modi Question,’ a two-part documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots. While not being broadcast in India, the documentary was well-attended because to public screenings that opposition groups, especially student organisations, organised around the nation.
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