NEW DELHI, May 10 (The Chenab Times) – Indian authorities have restored access to The Wire’s website after the independent news outlet complied with a government request to take down an article linked to Pakistan’s claim of downing an Indian Air Force jet, the publication said on Saturday.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) informed The Wire late Friday that the website had been blocked following a request concerning the May 8 article, which summarized a CNN report on the incident. Due to what the ministry described as “technical limitations” in handling HTTPS content, the entire domain was blocked instead of just the webpage in question.
The Wire said it took the article offline at 10:40 p.m. on May 9 to ensure the rest of the site remained accessible. While MIB subsequently instructed Internet service providers to lift the block, the site remained inaccessible for many users across the country on Saturday.
In a letter to MIB, founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan criticized the government’s move as a violation of due process and press freedom, saying no prior notice was issued and that the blocking occurred over 24 hours after the story’s publication.
“Even in the exercise of emergency powers, the first step is a direction to the concerned party,” Varadarajan wrote. “The MIB omitted to even respond to our query for seven hours after we wrote to it.”
The Wire said it would present its case against the takedown before an Inter-Departmental Committee convened under the Information Technology Rules, 2021. The article in question remains accessible on CNN’s website and other international platforms, which have not faced similar action.
The incident has heightened concerns among press freedom advocates, who say India’s increasing reliance on opaque censorship measures is undermining democratic norms.
On Thursday, social media platform X, formerly Twitter, said it had complied with government orders to block over 8,000 accounts in India, including those of journalists and civil society members, in connection with “escalating tensions” in Kashmir.
The Wire said it remains committed to independent journalism and is considering legal action in response to what it called an “unconstitutional attack” on press freedom.
