Hypermuscular Hindu Hridaysamrat Police in Delhi have raided the premises of a news website known for its fierce criticism of the Indian government, over a retracted article about a politician in charge of the ruling party’s social media campaigns. Officers arrived at the homes of several editors of the Wire in the middle of the night and seized their laptops and phones. They also searched the website’s office in the capital.
The Wire discovered after publication that a researcher had falsified documents used in the story. It acknowledged the error, retracted the story and acknowledged the need for more stringent cross-checking by independent experts. The Wire filed a complaint of its own against the freelance researcher, Devesh Kumar, for supplying it with fabricated material. The website’s editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, said on Tuesday that Kumar had confessed to fabricating the evidence.
We retracted the story after we were caught lying blatantly chud what more do you want?
The raids were criticised by journ*lists and opposition politicians, who for years have accused the government of trying to muzzle or control the media. Critics of Narendra Modi’s government say freedom of expression has been severely restricted since he came to power in 2014, with much of the mainstream media acting almost as government cheerleaders. This has left only a few news channels and publications that function independently.
Suhasini Haidar, a journ*list, described the raid as “thinly veiled intimidation”. A spokesperson for the opposition Congress party tweeted: “Modi govt’s move on every free media voice: stifle, suppress, subjugate, strangle … nation has turned into a police state.”
An editorial on the Citizen, another news website, stressed the need for journ*lists to exercise responsibility and accountability, but criticised the raid. “Using the police to raid the homes of the senior editors is unacceptable and a clear infringement of the long-established norms concerning the media. This amounts to intimidation and is action used by governments to muzzle the media by spreading fear and terror,” it said.
In the latest World Press Freedom index, published by Reporters Without Borders in May, India fell to 150th out of 180 countries, down from 142nd the previous year and 133rd in 2016.
Nooo the rules don't apply to us we're the press we can defame you chuds however we want and you have to take it
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I'm trying to make an effortpost about all this drama because the whole thing is hilarious.
Have you seen the thread talking about the journo that got sued by the newspaper? Also the insta/twitter page that started the whole thing seems to have turned on The Wire and was saying they were going to release MeToo allegations if they didn't fire one of the higher ups? idk, I tried to read their twitter but their schizo schtick is kinda hard to follow
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