'We stand up for BBC, freedom is important': UK MP David Rutley condemns IT surveys in BBC offices

Tory MP David Rutley, who is the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), strongly defended the BBC and expressed concern regarding the income tax surveys conducted on the media giant during a session in the UK parliament.

David Rutley took questions on the raid and freedom of expression in India, from members representing a cross section of Opposition parties as well as his own, for just under 20 minutes on Tuesday afternoon.

Rutley strongly defended the BBC and said,''We stand up for the BBC. We fund the BBC. We think the BBC World Service is vital. We want the BBC to have that editorial freedom. It criticises us, it criticises the Labour party, and it has that freedom that we believe is so important.''

"That freedom is key, and we want to be able to communicate its importance to our friends across the world, including the Government in India,'' Rutley responded in response to the questions raised by his fellow parliamentarians during ''Urgent Question'' debate.

Conservative MP Julian Lewis and Labour MP Fabian Hamilton said the developments were "deeply worrying".

"In any democracy the media must have the ability to criticise and scrutinise political leaders without fear of repercussions, and that clearly applies in this situation," Hamilton said.

The income tax authorities carried out raids on BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai. The survey was carried out to investigate issues related to international taxation and transfer pricing of BBC subsidiary companies, they had said.

The I-T teams, it is understood, sought answers on financial transactions, the company structure and other details about the news firm, and copied data from electronic gadgets as part of their task of collecting the evidence.

Opposition parties have denounced the I-T department action against the London-headquartered public broadcaster, terming it "political vendetta".