Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — The UK national broadcaster, BBC, confirming the news on Twitter that income tax officials left the offices of the BBC in New Delhi and Mumbai on Thursday night after a three-day survey, said that they will continue to cooperate with the authorities and hoped the matters will be resolved as soon as possible.
The British broadcaster, on its official Twitter handle, also said that the BBC is a trusted, independent media organisation and “we stand by our colleagues and journalists who will continue to report without fear or favour.”
The IT department’s ‘Survey’ at the BBC offices in Mumbai and New Delhi came weeks after the British broadcaster had on January 17 released a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the deadly sectarian riots in Gujarat in 2002 titled ‘India: The Modi Question’.
The Centre used emergency powers under IT Rules to block YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the documentary on January 20. The government slammed the documentary as “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage”.
The Opposition, however, accused the government of targeting the BBC for airing a documentary critical of PM Modi over the riots that swept Gujarat in 2002 when he was Chief Minister.
