The Wire’s website, 8,000 X accounts blocked in India amid conflict with Pakistan
New Delhi, May 9, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the nationwide block on access to The Wire independent news site as the latest act of media censorship following a militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month. “Facts must not be the casualty in any conflict,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program…
Delhi police raid The Wire office and homes of its editors over retracted Meta reports
New Delhi, October 31, 2022 — Indian authorities must stop harassing employees of the news website The Wire and let them work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Monday, officials with the Delhi police crime branch searched the New Delhi office of The Wire and the residences of editors Siddharth Varadarajan, M.K….
In India’s hardest-hit newsroom, surveilled reporters fear for their families and future journalists
M.K. Venu, a founding editor at India’s independent non-profit news site The Wire, says he has become used to having his phone tapped in the course of his career. But that didn’t diminish his shock last year when he learned that he, along with at least five others from The Wire, were among those listed…
Indian tax authorities ‘survey’ media funding organization IPSMF
On the afternoon of September 7, 2022, officials with India’s Income Tax Department conducted a “survey” of the Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation, a philanthropic organization that provides financial support to independent digital news outlets in the country, at the foundation’s office in Bengaluru, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka, according to multiple…
Women journalists in India feel more at risk after ‘auction’ apps worsen online abuse
Fatima Khan had just returned home from a reporting assignment when she discovered she’d become of more than 100 women listed as being “for sale” in the notorious app Bulli Bai. The site, named by combining a vulgar, derogatory slang for Muslim women (bulli) with the Hindi word for female servant (bai), operated by pulling…
Journalists harassed, obstructed while covering home demolitions in India
Washington, D.C., July 19, 2021 — Indian authorities should cease harassing and obstructing members of the press covering protests and demolitions in Khori Gaon, in Haryana state, and ensure that they can report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On June 30, and then repeatedly in mid-July, police have threatened, harassed, and obstructed…
Kashmir police threaten investigations into The Wire news website
Washington, D.C., July 6, 2021– Police in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir should cease harassing journalist Siddharth Varadarajan and The Wire, and allow journalists to report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On July 3, the police headquarters of the Kashmir zone issued a legal notice to Varadarajan, editor-in-chief of the independent news website…
Indian police open criminal investigation into The Wire and 3 journalists
New Delhi, June 16, 2021 — Authorities in India’s Uttar Pradesh state must immediately drop their criminal investigation into journalists Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi, and Mohammed Zubair, and the independent news website The Wire, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday, Uttar Pradesh police filed a criminal complaint stating that they were opening a…
Digital media rules empower Indian government to censor online news
Digital news sites in India are on edge and expecting the worst after the government promulgated news rules in February, bringing them under regulation and further endangering the environment for press freedom in the country. The rules, in essence, give the government powers to censor website content, with little chance for appeal. In interviews with…
Indian police arrest, investigate journalists covering farmers’ protests
New Delhi, February 1, 2021 – Indian authorities must immediately release journalist Mandeep Punia and refrain from detaining and investigating members of the press covering protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On the evening of January 30, Delhi police detained Mandeep Punia, a contributor to The Caravan magazine and Junputh news website, and…