NEW DELHI, 14 Feb: The Press Club of India (PCI) on Tuesday condemned the income tax (IT) department’s surveys at the offices of the BBC in New Delhi and Mumbai.
The department conducted the surveys at the British broadcaster’s offices as part of an investigation into alleged tax evasion, officials said.
“The recent raids are part of a series of attacks on the media by government agencies in recent times, especially against those sections of the media that the government perceives as hostile to it,” the PCI said in a statement.
It appealed to the government to restrain its agencies from “misusing their powers in order to intimidate the media.”
The department’s action comes weeks after the British broadcaster aired a two-part documentary, India: The Modi Question.
“If the government has any issue with the report, it should take it up with the office concerned, rather than shoot the messenger,” the PCI said.
The Editors Guild of India (EGI) also said it is “deeply concerned” about the income tax surveys at the offices of BBC India, and termed it a continuation of a “trend” of using government agencies to “intimidate and harass” media outlets critical of the ruling establishment.
In a statement, the guild demanded that great care and sensitivity be shown in all such investigations, so as to not undermine the rights of journalists and media organisations.
The statement came after the income tax authorities conducted the ‘survey operation’ at the BBC’s offices.
The broadcaster said it is “fully cooperating” with the tax authorities.
“The survey by the IT department is in continuation of a trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass press organisations that are critical of government policies or the ruling establishment,” the guild said in a statement.
The guild noted that the IT survey came soon after the release of two documentaries by the BBC on the 2002 violence in Gujarat and the current status of the minorities in India.
The documentaries stirred political waters, with the government criticising the BBC for wrong and prejudiced reportage on the Gujarat violence and attempting to ban online access and viewing of the films in India, it said.
It recalled that IT surveys were conducted in 2021 at the offices of NewsClick, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar and Bharat Samachar.
“In each case, the raids and surveys were against the backdrop of critical coverage of the government establishment by the news organisations,” the guild said.
“This is a trend that undermines constitutional democracy,” it said.
The guild reiterated its earlier demand that governments ensure that such investigations are conducted within the prescribed rules, and that they don’t degenerate into instruments of harassment to intimidate independent media.
The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) also condemned the IT surveys at the BBC offices in the strongest terms, and said that the action “smacks of vendetta against the broadcaster” as it comes weeks after it aired India: The Modi Question.
In a statement, IJU President Geetartha Pathak and Secretary-General Sabina Inderjit said that “such actions put a big question mark on the government’s commitment to press freedom as the world’s largest democracy.”
The IJU demanded that “the government refrain from such vindictive actions and let the media do its work, if it (the government) has nothing to hide.” (With PTI input)
