The blocking of news portal The Wire’s website, allegedly on the Indian government’s orders over an article on 9 May 2025, has drawn condemnation from journalist bodies and political parties. Access to the website had been restored when this report was filed.
In a joint statement, the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Press Association and the Delhi Union of Journalists said the blocking of The Wire’s website “constituted a grave action against the interests of a free press in India” if it was indeed ordered by the Union government. They took note of the blocking of access to the X accounts of various journalists and news outlets, including the BBC’s Urdu service.
“While there is no doubt that the media as a whole has to conduct itself responsibly, the arbitrary blocks on some social media accounts of media-persons and news organizations, the orders for which have not been made public, must be lifted,” the statement said.
“Such crackdowns are against the freedom of the press and directly against the interests of the Indian public,” they said. “The government must be transparent in its actions and journalists ought to be allowed to do their job without restrictions.”
The Wire said in a statement on Saturday (10 May 2025) that unblocking orders were issued after it reached out to the ministry of information and broadcasting about the censorship. As a precondition for removing the site, the site said the government urged it to take down an article it had put out based on reporting by the US publication CNN.
While the site has taken the article down, it noted that the original CNN story remained available, and said it would challenge the decision.
Other news organizations such as Digipub, the Chennai Press Club, Indian Journalists Union, Mumbai Press Club and the Chennai Press Club have also taken strong exception to what they call is press censorship.
“If the Indian government has indeed blocked access to The Wire, then it is a blatant attack on press freedom. Silencing independent media doesn’t protect democracy-it weakens it,” DIGIPUB, a group of digital news websites of which The Wire is a member, said.
“These actions, executed under the orders of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as per the IT Act, 2000, and in response to unspecified legal demands, represent a grave violation of the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press under Article 19(1)(a),” the Indian Journalists Union said.
Siddharth Varadarajan’s letter to the government
In a letter to the government, The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan said, “I am constrained to note that under the IT Act, the procedure your ministry should have followed was to first issue notice about the news story in question, then give The Wire a chance to present its views before the inter-departmental committee and only then, if the IDC insists on the story’s deletion, could you have taken the extreme step of blocking our website if we remained non-compliant.”
The committee is led by the Ministry of information and broadcasting to adjudicate on blocking orders, The Hindu reported.
“The impugned story was published at 0347 on May 8 and the information it reported about was widely available at least 12 hours earlier, from CNN, whose story has remained widely available in India since then. I fail to see why the government wants our story deleted and treated it as such a matter of emergency more than 24 hours after publication that no notice was even served to us and our entire website blocked,” Varadarajan said in his letter.
“Shortly after we sent this reply, MIB officials informed us that orders had been issued to Internet Service Providers to unblock the site,” Varadarajan said.
Political parties take note
Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja wrote to the Union minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw, highlighting how misinformation was allowed to run rampant during ‘Operation Sindoor.’
“I, on behalf of the Communist Party of India, register my deep concern over the inflammatory and misleading content being aired by several television news channels following Operation Sindoor. While the nation stands united against terrorism, we are witnessing a dangerous trend where certain channels are communalizing the issue, spreading unverified claims, and promoting war hysteria—without any official confirmation from the Government or Armed Forces.”
Raja said that such coverage creates panic and fear. He mentioned that responsible news portals like The Wire have been blocked, in contrast.
“The airwaves must not become battlegrounds of distortion when the nation needs calm and clarity. We hope this urgent and pressing matter concerning national unity in challenging times will find your immediate attention,” Raja said.
DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin said the effort to silence the media now harms democracy, The Wire reported. “Silencing the media at a critical juncture undermines the spirit of democracy. I hope the Union government reconsiders and lifts the ban on @thewire_in, Let not press freedom be strangled in the world’s largest democracy,” he wrote on X.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut posted on X, “The Wire-OFF; Liar-ON” hinting at misinformation being peddled by pro-government channels like Republic that are freely accessible by the public while others are being censored.
While The Wire is back online, the fact that access was cut following a critical article highlights the growing tension between independent media and government oversight. Press freedom shouldn’t be negotiable in a democracy.