The Reporters’ Collective, an investigative news platform, on Tuesday stated that the Income Tax Department had cancelled its non-profit status.

The tax authorities claimed that journalism did not serve a public purpose and therefore could not be carried out as a non-profit exercise in India, stated the collective, adding that it had existed as a formally registered non-profit trust since July 2021.

“We have consistently worked with public purpose as a non-profit and in adherence to all Indian laws, without fear or favour,” it said.

It added that the order cancelling the collective’s non-profit status “severely impaired” its ability to do its work and “worsened the conditions for independent public-purposed journalism in the country”.

The collective was seeking legal remedies to protect the idea of journalism as a public good and its right to carry out investigative journalism, it added.

“We at The Reporters’ Collective continue to believe that journalism, when done right, is an essential public service for our democracy,” it said. “Journalism done right is a public good. Investigative journalism that holds the powerful accountable essentially serves the citizens, particularly the poor and the marginalised.”

The collective has produced and published investigative news reports in several formats and languages, conducted research and trained journalists over the past five years.

The cancellation of its non-profit status came a month after its report on an alleged bid by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government to “whitewash” global indices such as hunger, poverty and democracy by altering methodologies to change rankings, getting ministers to criticise such numbers or creating homegrown parameters.

It has also published reports on the ethnic conflict in Manipur, women’s safety and empowerment in the country and how the Union government has favoured commercial interests over forest conservation and indigenous rights.

On Monday, Congress leader P Chidambaram said that “one more building block of freedom was knocked down” with the cancelling of the collective’s non-profit status.

“The official reason given is ‘journalism does not serve any public purpose,’” he said on social media. “The true reason is that independent journalism does not serve the government’s purpose.”

His party colleague Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that the “fascist” government under Modi was inimical to independent media and hated a free press.

“The pliant, subservient media of today is a poor commentary on the brick by brick, designed obliteration of democracy,” Surjewala said on social media.

Any news organisation like The Reporters’ Collective that investigated, sought answers or questioned those in power were shunned by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its government, he added.

Joe Athialy, the executive director of the non-profit Centre for Financial Accountability, said that the collective was a beacon of true journalism that served an extremely critical public purpose.

“Trying to silence their voices is a direct attack on press freedom and another blatant attempt to stifle dissent,” he said on social media. “We stand in unwavering solidarity with The Reporters’ Collective.”