London
CNN
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The BBC says it won’t be “put off” from reporting in India after the federal government prevented a documentary crucial of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from airing within the nation and raided the broadcaster’s places of work.
Indian tax authorities spent three days looking out BBC places of work in Delhi and Mumbai final week. The raids got here almost a month after the Indian authorities used emergency powers to ban the two-part documentary “India: The Modi Question.”
In an e mail to employees in India, BBC director normal Tim Davie applauded their braveness within the face of what press teams and India’s important opposition Congress get together have condemned as an assault on press freedom
“Nothing is more important than our ability to report without fear or favour,” Davie wrote within the e mail, a duplicate of which was shared with CNN.
“Our duty to our audiences around the world is to pursue the facts through independent and impartial journalism, and to produce and distribute the very best creative content. We won’t be put off from that task”
Davie added that the BBC “does not have an agenda.”
Indian authorities have accused the BBC of tax evasion. India’s Income Tax Department mentioned it had discovered “several discrepancies and inconsistencies” within the data of “a prominent international media company.” The BBC mentioned final week that it will “respond appropriately to any direct formal communication received from the Income Tax Department.”
Davie mentioned in his e mail that the BBC continued to cooperate absolutely with the Indian tax authorities.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) mentioned that the searches had “all the hallmarks of a reprisal,” coming as they did weeks after the Indian authorities prevented the Modi documentary from airing and blocked clips of it circulating on social media.
The documentary, which broadcast within the United Kingdom in January, criticized the function performed by Modi as chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when riots broke out between the state’s majority Hindus and minority Muslims in 2002.
Modi was accused of not doing sufficient to cease the violence, which killed greater than 1,000 folks, largely Muslims. Modi has denied wrongdoing, and a particular investigation group appointed by India’s Supreme Court in 2012 discovered no proof to counsel he was responsible.
The prime minister has been accused of silencing his critics in current months and on Thursday, a senior member of India’s Congress get together was arrested for allegedly insulting Modi.
— Swati Gupta and Manveena Suri in New Delhi, Olesya Dmitracova and Martin Goillandeau in London, and Alex Stambaugh in Hong Kong contributed reporting.