New Delhi: On the radar of the Income Tax department after searches in its offices last year, the BBC has handed over its newsroom publishing license in India to a private limited company called Collective Newsroom, which has been set up by four former employees.
The move, a first for the public service broadcaster’s global operations anywhere in the world, will see the Collective Newsroom produce all of the India content for the BBC’s digital services in English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu starting next week, reported the Indian Express.
“It’s unprecedented for the BBC to grant their license to publish to another entity … We will not compromise our journalism and the BBC is solidly behind us,” said Rupa Jha, who is chief executive officer of the Collective Newsroom, is one of the four founding shareholders and who has been senior news editor at BBC India.
The BJP-led Union government imposed a cap of 26% foreign direct investment (FDI) for digital news outfits operating in India.
99.99% of BBC World Service India’s shares are owned by its UK-based public broadcaster.
Under the new FDI rules, companies exceeding the 26% FDI limit were required to reduce their foreign investment to comply with this regulation by October 2021.
“There were a number of options before us. Considering that the BBC didn’t want to lose its presence in India or cut jobs, and they didn’t want it to become financially unviable, this forced us to think out of the box,” Jha was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
She continued: “Based on the legal advice the BBC was receiving, everyone was veering towards this as the viable option (of setting up the Collective).”
Also read: With BBC Tax Raid, the Modi Cult Makes India the ‘Smother of Democracy’
The report said that the BBC is learnt to have applied to the Indian government for a 26% stake in the Collective Newsroom.
In February 2023, the BBC was raided by Indian income tax authorities just days after it aired a documentary about Narendra Modi’s alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Though the documentary was never aired on Indian television, the Union government went to great lengths to see that it was not available on social media.
Apart from Jha, the other Indian citizens who will lead the Collective Newsroom are Mukesh Sharma, Sanjoy Majumder and Sara Hassan.
Earlier, Newslaundry reported that the Collective Newsroom is expected to absorb all of BBC India’s staff.
Its report adds that “the salary and terms of employment for the employees of Collective Newsroom will be on the lines of the BBC”.
“The BBC’s presence in India is steeped in a rich history that has always put audiences first, so we warmly welcome the formation of Collective Newsroom which continues that progression,” said Jonathan Munro, deputy CEO of BBC News.
The restructuring of the BBC’s operations in India comes as India ranks among the bottom twenty countries in the World Press Freedom Index, at 161 out of 180.
