Govt lifted ban after Rafael story was removed: The Wire

News website The Wire announced that the ban on its portal was lifted after it removed a story about Rafel jets after contacting the Union ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The website was asked to remove a report it carried based on the coverage of United States based news channel CNN. On May 9, the Centre had blocked The Wire’s website across India, citing technical limitations following a complaint regarding a report it published about the Rafael jet.

After the story was pulled down, Sidharth Varadarajan, editor of The Wire criticised the Centre’s move terming it as “unconstitutional attack on the freedom of the press,” adding that the platform would explore legal remedies.

After the website was blocked, the editor reached out to the Ministries of Information & Broadcasting and Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), seeking why the website was blocked.

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Despite the website now being accessible again, The Wire stated on Saturday, May 10, that users from different parts of the country and across various networks were still facing issues accessing the site.

According to The Wire’s statement, the MIB responded on May 9, claiming that technical limitations compelled them to block the entire website.

The ministry explained that due to the nature of HTTPS protocols, they were incapable of blocking individual web pages and could only restrict entire domains. MIB further requested The Wire to take “appropriate action regarding that content and inform of the action taken, which would enable the Ministry to unblock the website.”

In response, The Wire notified the authorities that it had removed the contentious report at 10:40 p.m. on May 9, emphasizing that its “priority” was to restore access to its website and that it had “no option but to comply with this unfair demand while reserving our rights under the Constitution of India to seek appropriate remedies.”

He stressed that the report had been published on May 8 and that the information it contained had already been available online for over 12 hours, including in a report by CNN that remains accessible in India.

“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,” he stated.

Vardarajan further said that under emergency powers, the correct procedure begins with issuing a formal directive to the concerned party, which the MIB failed to do. “The MIB omitted to even respond to our query for seven hours after we wrote to it,” he said.

In its letter, the MIB said The Wire would be granted an opportunity to submit its “comments/clarifications” before the Inter-Departmental Committee established under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

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