Face2News/Hyderabad/Chandigarh
The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) condemned the Income Tax Department raid on the British Broadcasting Corporation Delhi and Mumbai offices. In a statement issued on Tuesday IJU President K. Sreenivas Reddy, Secretary General Balwinder Singh Jammu termed the 'survey' as a clear case of vendetta.
The government has, for sometime, 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 IT Dept on BBC is the latest in that series, the IJU leaders said.
Using a government agency to browbeat an internationally renowned news agency 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.