Majority of Indians support raids on BBC offices, despite international outcry
Tracking Global Events | 21 February 2023
Last week, Indian tax officials spent three days conducting searches of BBC offices in Mumbai and New Delhi just weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned a BBC documentary critical of his alleged role in deadly riots over 20 years ago. India is the world’s most populous democracy, but ranks 150th out of 180 countries in the most recent World Press Freedom Index. Premise deployed a survey to better understand Indian sentiment on the raids on BBC offices, press freedom, and democracy.
Insights
- Support for Modi was found to be high, with 54% of respondents viewing the PM very positively, and an additional 26% viewing him somewhat positively.
- A significant majority of respondents also support the government’s decision to ban the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” with 32% of respondents strongly supporting and 36% somewhat supporting the ban.
- Support for the raid on BBC offices was slightly smaller, though still sizeable, with 32% strongly supporting and 32% somewhat supporting the raids.
- When asked about whether they agree that “India is a country that protects press freedom,” 75% agree or strongly agree.
- Despite support for the documentary ban and raid on the BBC, 63% of respondents are fairly or completely confident that Western media eports the news in an honest and fair way. That number is slightly less than the 66% that are confident the Indian media reports the news in an honest and fair way
Methodology
Premise received 1000 responses with a 50/50 gender split across all 28 states and 8 union territories between February 17th and 18th. The survey utilized a convenience sample, a type of nonprobability sampling that is hyper efficient in dynamic events, involving the sample being drawn from the population that is ready to assist.
Premise In Action
Premise offers a unique ability to quickly source information from real people on the ground in hard-to-reach places. Over five million people in 140 countries are using the Premise app on their smartphones, enabling our customers to monitor a situation over time and employ a data-driven approach to timely decision-making. To learn more about Premise, watch our tech demo or get in touch with us.