BBC re-organises operations in India

The BBC has moved its newsroom publishing licence in India to a private limited company following last year’s searches conducted by the Income Tax department at BBC’s offices.

The new private limited company called Collective Newsroom, will commence operations from 10th April. The company will produce content for BBC’s digital services in seven languages, including English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

According to company data, Collective Newsroom Private Limited was incorporated on 27th October 2020. Rupa Jha, the CEO of Collective Newsroom, informed The Indian Express that while BBC is their first client, they are not exclusively signed up with them.

She assured that the content produced will adhere to BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and uphold the trust in the BBC brand. “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,” she said.

The restructuring was a response to the new Foreign Direct Investment rules introduced in 2020, which imposed a 26 per cent FDI limit in India’s digital media sector.