Official: Ex-BBC Staff Announces ‘Collective Newsroom’

Confirming the news reports, a former BBC journalist announced today on social media the launching of ‘Collective Newsroom’, a coming togetherof former emplyees of the British media house. It was reported last week that the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has hived off its newsrooms in India. The announcement was made official by Sanjoy Majumder.

The move comes less than a year after the journalists of the British broadcaster questioned by the Income Tax authorities of India for alleged violations.

Now, the BBC has handed over its publishing license to a private limited company which was established by its former Indian employees. This is the first for BBC to do so from anywhere in the world.

“Some personal news – after nearly 25 years I have left the BBC to launch Collective Newsroom – which from today has taken over the bulk of the BBC’s India operations producing content on multiple platforms in seven languages collectivenewsroom.com,“ Mr Majumder wrote on X.

”We’ve launched an independent, Indian-owned company called the Collective Newsroom. I’ll be the Director of Journalism & Deputy CEO of this entity. Collective Newsroom will now produce content for the BBC’s six Indian language services (Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil & Telugu) as well as a YouTube channel BBC News India in English. The new entity would enable BBC to meet its commitment to audiences in India and globally, while also complying with Indian FDI law,” wrote another former BBC journalist on X.

Also, the abiut details on the website said the Collective Newsroom has been founded by four of the BBC’s most senior employees in India “with a wealth of journalistic and operational experience”. “With more than 250 journalists based in Delhi and a number of Indian cities, it brings you distinctive, impartial and world-class content in seven languages and is the BBC’s sole provider of content for its Indian language websites and social media platforms,“ it added.

Earlier, the editorial operations of BBC in the country were operated by BBC India. More than 99 percentage of BBC India was owned by the UK-based broadcaster. Since the investment cap was introduced, companies exceeding the 26 percentage limit were asked to reduce their foreign investment to comply with this regulation by October 2021. It had over 200 employees, who were now moved to the Collective Newsroom.

The UK broadcaster’s India bureau was its largest bureau outside the United Kingdom. It began its broadcasting in 1940. In February last year, BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai were searched by the income tax authorities, few days after it aired a documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question’, that featured the 2002 Gujarat riots.