Hyderabad: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) on Tuesday condemned the Income Tax Department survey on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) Delhi and Mumbai offices.
In a statement, IJU President K Sreenivas Reddy and Secretary General Balwinder Singh Jammu termed the survey as a clear case of “vendetta”.
The government has, for some time, been indulging in acts of intimidation by misusing enforcement agencies, against media outlets critical of the omissions and commissions of the ruling dispensation.
The raid by the IT Department on BBC is the latest in that series, the IJU leaders said.
Using a government agency to browbeat an internationally renowned news outlet like BBC after it released a documentary on 2002 Gujarat riots, sends a wrong signal and “lowers” the prestige of the largest democracy in the eyes of the international community.
The government would do well to accept the mistake and keep away from media houses, the IJU leaders said.
