Censorship

The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Tuesday (September 16) sent notices to two media houses and a number of YouTube channels ordering them to take down a total of 138 videos and 83 Instagram posts that mentioned the Adani Group.

These orders, the ministry stated in a letter dated Tuesday, was based on an ex parte order issued by the the North West Delhi district court on September 6 in a defamation case filed by Adani Enterprises.

The court had told a number of journalists and activists including Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi to take down articles and social media posts that allegedly defamed the Adani Group.

An ex parte order is issued when some parties to a case – in this case the journalists and activists involved – are not heard.

Those who received notices from the information and broadcasting ministry on Tuesday, however, are not party to that case.

The Wire too has been served this notice on Tuesday, for a solitary Instagram post that referred to allegations levelled by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against the Adani Group, which are matters of record.