Censorship – News Media/Documentaries

On 10th May 2025, The Wire reported that the day before, more than 12-15 hours after The Wire‘s website was blocked in India on government orders – and some eight hours after they had formally written to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) seeking an explanation for their website being blocked, they had received a written ‘explanation’ from the MIB.

The ministry’s email, which was received at 9:41 pm on May 9, said that thewire.in was blocked based on blocking request it had received regarding the article on the webpage https://m.thewire.in/article/security/cnn-french-official-iaf-rafale-downed-by-pakistan.

The letter said that thewire.in was blocked due to the technical limitation that in the case of https websites, only full domains can be blocked, and sub-pages cannot be blocked. It added that The Wire was requested to take appropriate action regarding that content and “inform the action taken, which would enable the Ministry to unblock the website.”

While fully reserving its right to challenge this unconstitutional attack on freedom of press, The Wire’s founding editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, informed MIB at 10:40 pm on May 9 that it had removed the story/webpage from public view.