A Border Police officer stands guard outside the office building where Indian tax authorities raided BBC’s office in New Delhi.
Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
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Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
A Border Police officer stands guard outside the office building where Indian tax authorities raided BBC’s office in New Delhi.
Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
MUMBAI — Indian tax inspectors remain at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai for a third straight day. These raids come weeks after the British broadcaster aired a documentary critical of India’s prime minister.
Around 10 BBC employees have been sleeping in their office since Tuesday. Some of the tax agents stayed overnight too. They searched the laptops and phones of some journalists as well as administrative staff.
Indian officials call this a tax “survey.” But press freedom advocates say it may have more to do with a recent BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in anti-Muslim riots. His government banned it from being screened or shared online in India.
While rights groups have criticized these raids, the governments of the U.S., France and the U.K. have not. They’ve been celebrating a big deal Modi presided over, in which Air India is buying airplanes made by U.S., French and British companies.
