BBC to split India operations following raids

The BBC will split its operations in India. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

The BBC will split its operations in India into two separate companies, after raids by India’s tax authorities last year.

The BBC announced that it was forming an independent, Indian-owned company called the Collective Newsroom, which would produce content for the corporation’s six regional channels which broadcast in Indian languages including Hindi and Punjabi.

The BBC has applied to have a 26% stake in Collective Newsroom, but it will be largely independent from the broadcaster, in order to comply with strict laws brought in by the government of prime minister Narendra Modi which have targeted companies that receive funding from abroad.

A smaller team of reporters and producers making programmes for the BBC’s English-language radio and television news channels, headquartered in the UK, will remain in India working directly for the broadcaster.

The highly unusual overhaul of operations by the British public broadcaster comes after the BBC offices in India were raided in 2023 by India’s tax authorities in an operation that lasted several days.

The raids, which the government called a “tax survey”, came after the BBC aired a documentary examining Modi’s role in deadly communal riots that took place when he was chief minister of the state of Gujarat.

The Indian government condemned the documentary and responded by invoking emergency laws to ban any clips or footage of the documentary being shared, despite it only being aired in the UK.

Not long after dozens of officials from India’s income tax department arrived at the BBC’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai. Some senior members of staff were questioned for three days.

The government denied the raids were connected to the documentary, and were part of an investigation into the BBC violating India’s strict rules on foreign investment, accusing them of not fully disclosing profits.

The BBC, which has had a presence in India since 1940, said it remained committed to producing content from India not only English but in its channels broadcasting in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

Under the new structure, four former BBC employees have set up a private, Indian-owned company that will create content broadcast on the BBC’s six regional language channels. It will employ about 200 staff who previously directly worked for the BBC’s regional news channels in India.

Collective Newsroom will also be able to make content for other Indian broadcasters. It is unclear if it will have to comply with the same standards of impartiality imposed on all BBC programming.

Rupa Jha, chief executive of Collective Newsroom, described the new operation as an “independent news organisation that leads with the facts, works in the public interest and hears from diverse voices and perspectives.”

Jha said they had a “a clear, ambitious mission to create the most credible, creative and courageous journalism”.

Ninety employees will remain in India directly employed by the BBC in the UK and reporting to editors in London. Their content produced from India will be accessible to Indian audiences through services such as the BBC world news channel and BBC World Service radio but it will be published out of the UK headquarters.