"The [Ministry of Home Affairs] has asked the [Department of Telecommunication] to tell [RIM] in no uncertain terms that its emails and other data services must comply with formats that can be monitored by security and intelligence agencies."
The Indian government has threatened to cut off Blackberry services if RIM doesn't comply. I don't think calling that a security issue is off the mark.
The Indian government was asking for a backdoor into the system. That's more of a security issue than privacy.
As that isn't the case, then it's a privacy issue because the Indian government demanded RIM put in a backdoor for reasons or surveillance of its population.
Does this privacy issue potentially lead to a security issue? Yes, but not for RIM, but rather for it's users that depend on the privacy of RIM's service over which they may transmit sensitive information.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/nokia-complies-in-indi...
"A deadline of March 31st has been given to the BlackBerry manufacturer, Research in Motion, to hand over encryption keys which would allow the Indian government to intercept corporate emails and other data used on the secure handsets."
"The corporate BlackBerry system works in such a secure manner, that even the BlackBerry manufacturer cannot intercept messages on its systems, leading to Research in Motion being unable to offer what the Indian government wants."
Was this resolved? I can't find anything newer than the above. Maybe the BBC-interviewer couldn't either and wanted to know what's happening.