Financial Times condemns tax ‘raids’ on BBC

The Financial Times has now joined The Guardian and The Times in London in condemning “India’s creeping clampdown on free expression”.

The paper does not buy the Indian government’s explanation that the tax authorities were conducting a legitimate “survey” of the BBC’s business dealings.

Instead, it says “the raids on the BBC are part of a troubling global picture for media rights”.

The FT has also been relentless in its pursuit of the Gautam Adani affair, which it says has been raising questions about the probity of corporate India, particularly in view of the tycoon’s perceived closeness to Narendra Modi. But the paper’s latest leader comment is devoted to the Indian government’s actions against the BBC.