New Delhi
\nJust weeks after the BBC aired a documentary examining Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s role in deadly 2002 sectarian riots, tax inspectors descended on the broadcaster\u2019s offices.
\nModi\u2019s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party says the two are not connected, but rights groups say the BBC raids this week show the parlous state of press freedom in the world\u2019s biggest democracy.
\nNews outlets that publish unfavourable reporting find themselves targeted with legal action, while journalists critical of the government are harassed and even imprisoned.
\nThe three-day lockdown of the BBC\u2019s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai is the latest of several similar \u201csearch and survey\u201d operations against media houses.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, this is becoming a trend, there is no shying away from that,\u201d Kunal Majumdar of the Committee to Protect Journalists told AFP.
\nAt least four Indian outlets that had critically reported on the government were raided by tax officers or financial crimes investigators in the past two years, he said.
\nAs with the BBC, those outlets said officials confiscated phones and accessed computers used by journalists.
\n\u201cWhen you have authorities trying to go through your material, go through your work, that\u2019s intimidation,\u201d Majumdar added.
\n\u201cThe international community ought to wake up and start taking this matter seriously.\u201d
\nIndia has fallen 10 spots to 150th on the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, since Modi took office in 2014.
\nJournalists have long faced harassment, legal threats and intimidation for their work in India but more criminal cases are being lodged against reporters than ever, according to the Free Speech Collective.
\nCriminal complaints were issued against a record 67 journalists in 2020, the latest year for which figures are available, the local civil society group reported.
\nTen journalists were behind bars in India at the start of the year, according to Reporters Without Borders.
\nOnce arrested, reporters can spend months or even years waiting for the cases against them to proceed through the courts.
\n\u2018Why be afraid?\u2019
\nThe BBC documentary explored Modi\u2019s time as chief minister of Gujarat state during religious riots that killed at least 1,000 people, most of them minority Muslims.
\nThe programme cited a British foreign ministry report claiming that Modi met senior police officers and \u201cordered them not to intervene\u201d in anti-Muslim violence by right-wing Hindu groups.
\nThe two-part series featured a BBC interview with Modi shortly after the riots, in which he was asked whether he could have handled the matter differently.
\nModi responded that his main weakness was not knowing \u201chow to handle the media\u201d.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s been something he has been taking care of since,\u201d Hartosh Singh Bal, the political editor of India\u2019s Caravan magazine, told AFP.
\n\u201cThat sums up his attitude.\u201d
\nThe BBC documentary did not air in India but provoked a furious response from the government, which dismissed its contents as \u201chostile propaganda\u201d.
\nAuthorities used information technology laws to ban the sharing of links to the programme in an effort to stop its spread on social media.
\nGaurav Bhatia, a BJP spokesman, said this week\u2019s raids on the BBC offices were lawful and the timing had nothing to do with the documentary\u2019s broadcast.
\n\u201cIf you have been following the law of the country, if you have nothing to hide, why be afraid of an action that is according to the law,\u201d he told reporters.
\nIndia\u2019s Income Tax Department said in a statement Friday that its \u201csurvey action\u201d found evidence the broadcaster had not paid tax on certain remittances, among other \u201cdiscrepancies\u201d.\\<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi Just weeks after the BBC aired a documentary examining Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s role in deadly 2002 sectarian riots, tax inspectors descended on the broadcaster\u2019s offices. Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party says the two are not connected, but rights groups say the BBC raids this week show the parlous state of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-314393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n