The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) did not publish a survey where India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party came in fourth place among the world’s most corrupt parties. The claim first appeared in March 2017, and a spokesperson for the BBC confirmed the image is fake.
Examples of the deceiving image bearing a look-alike BBC logo can be seen in a post here and here with a caption reading, in part, “BJP no. 4 in the list of the most corruption political party of aa (sic) time!”
The table appears to be entitled, “Top 10 corrupt political parties in the world 2017.” No such article appears on the BBC’s website, however (here).
In an emailed statement to Reuters, BBC publicist Leonie Martin said the meme was fake.
This is not the first time BBC content has been faked to target Indian audiences.
The broadcaster itself debunked similar claims in a 2019 explainer seen here .“BBC has made it clear that it does not conduct election surveys in India,” it said, as well as debunking false notions that the BBC had predicted a BJP win or reported on BJP leads in polls.
Reuters found no recent reporting by the BBC of international corruption polls calling out the BJP, the party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or polls examining the performance of the BJP.
A review of BBC content shows the media organization produced a list here ranking corruption around the globe in 2010. The release mentions India, among other countries, but not the BJP.
A 2016 article seen here titled “No progress on African corruption says watchdog” provides a ranked list of countries where public sector corruption is perceived highest and lowest. This list does not mention India or the BJP.
Indian fact-checking website Factly reported on this supposed list in 2019 (bit.ly/3pVbvdy), also concluding it was not published by the BBC. They traced the screenshot to a now-suspended website called “BBC News Hub” mimicking the BBC seen archived (here).
The imposter content has been called out since at least 2017 (here) (here).
VERDICT
False. The BBC did not publish a survey declaring India’s BJP as one of the most corrupt political parties in the world.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.