The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Income Tax (IT) Department has revoked the non-profit status of The Reporters’ Collective (TRC), a digital media outlet known for its investigations.
The department claims that TRC’s journalism does not serve a public purpose, despite the organisation’s work uncovering important stories, such as the Union government’s handling of Sainik Schools to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies and how the BJP benefitted from the electoral bond scheme.
“We began as an informal group bootstrapping from our meagre resources. Since July 2021 we have existed as a formal registered non-profit trust funded by citizens. But now the tax authorities have cancelled our non-profit status, claiming journalism does not serve any public purpose and therefore cannot be carried out as a non-profit exercise in India,” TRC said in a statement issued today (January 28).
TRC has announced plans to seek legal remedies to protect their right to conduct investigative journalism.
“We at The Reporters’ Collective continue to believe that journalism, when done right, is an essential public service for our democracy. Journalism done right is a public good. Investigative journalism that holds the powerful accountable essentially serves the citizens, particularly the poor and the marginalised,” TRC said.
The collective added, “The order cancelling our non-profit status severely impairs our ability to do our work and worsens the conditions for independent public-purposed journalism in the country. We are seeking legal remedies to protect the idea of journalism as a public good and our right to carry out investigative journalism, research and training free of encumbrances, fear or threats at The Collective. We stand by all our colleagues at The Collective who have shown exceptional courage, skills, and perseverance to produce journalism that we all are proud of.”
According to The News Minute, similar notices have been served to at least two other media outlets which operate under a charitable trust and have tax exemptions, including Bengaluru-based Kannada website The File, which received a notice in December 2024. The File’s founder and editor, G. Mahantesh, disputes the department’s claim that their website is a commercial venture, stating that they are an ad-free space.
In 2022, the I-T Department conducted a survey of The Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation’s balance sheets, sparking concerns about government interference in the media.
India has been ranked 159 in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).