The Wire is an Indian nonprofitnews and opinion website.[1] It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, and M. K. Venu.[2][3] It counts among the news outlets that are independent of the Indian government,[1] and has been subject to several defamation suits by businessmen and politicians.
History
The Wire was founded by Siddharth Varadarajan, after he was removed from his position as editor at The Hindu.[4][5] It began operating on 11 May 2015; Varadarajan worked with Sidharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu who had initially funded the website. Later it was made part of the Foundation for Independent Journalism, a non-profit.[3] The Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation has provided The Wire with funding as well.[3]
Varadarajan claims that the publication was created as a "platform for independent journalism",[6] and that its non-corporate structure and funding sources aim to free it from the "commercial and political pressures" which supposedly afflict mainstream Indian news outlets.[6][1][7]The Wire's founding is construed to be a result of and a reaction to a political environment which has "discouraged dissent" against the present Indian ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.[1]
According to one of the founding editors, the founders’ basic value is to stand for the right of the individual against the normally overbearing nature of the State. He further added that the founders are socially and economicallyliberal in their approach.[8] Varadarajan said in an interview that he (and by extension The Wire, as asked in question) in all matters of journalism is guided by the Constitution of India.[9]
According to a 2017 article of the Mint, the websites coverage primarily focused on the topics of development, foreign policy, political economy, politics and science.[6]Karan Thapar's regular show The Interview with Karan Thapar covers current affairs and events on The Wire.[12]
Siddharth Vardarajan was awarded with the Shorenstein Prize in 2017; jury member of the award Nayan Chanda mentioned Vardarajan's independent web-based journalism-venture and distinguished body of well-researched reports to be an epitome of journalistic excellence and innovation.[20] In November 2019, The Network of Women in Media, India criticised The Wire for providing a platform to Vinod Dua for making fun of an allegation of sexual harassment against him.[21] A December 2019 article by Dexter Filkins of The New Yorker, noted that The Wire is one of the few small outfits and the most prominent (other than The Caravan), to have engaged in providing aggressive coverage of the current Indian Govt ruled by BJP at a time when mainstream media is failing to do so.[22]
On 10 October 2022, The Wire alleged Meta (formerly Facebook) provided Amit Malviya, the head of the Information Technology Cell of the incumbent ruling party in India, with the ability to delete any post on Instagram bypassing the usual content moderation system.[24] The article says Amit Malviya had these privileges since his account had the XCheck[25] tag. Meta categorically denied and called the Wire's reporting “false” and said it was based on “fabricated evidence”.[26] Later the publication went on to publish a purported "internal message" from Andy Stone, the Communications Director, expressing frustration at the leak of Malviya's privileges. A further detailed report was also published which featured email-communication from two anonymous "experts" verifying the integrity of Stone's email and a semi-redacted video of an in-house moderation tool attesting to Malviya's privileges.[24]
Soon, numerous flaws were spotted in the evidence that pointed to fabrication and skeptics, including former Facebook whistle-blowers, began to cast doubts.[24][27] Afterwards, as both the anonymous experts denied involvement with The Wire, the reports were subject to an internal review and retracted by The Wire; later the publication conceded its failure to verify the evidence and accused the reporter, Devesh Kumar, of deceit.[28][29][30] The developments also brought back focus on the publication's earlier investigative coverage of an app called Tek Fog—supposedly used by the ruling party to spread disinformation and harass dissenters, that Kumar had been responsible for. This story also was removed from the site,[31] and The Wire issued a formal apology, admitting to have rushed the story without having it double checked independently.[32]
Bloomberg and Editors Guild of India also later retracted their coverage of Tek Fog, which was solely based on The Wire's reporting.[33][34] The Guild in its statement, urged newsrooms 'to resist the temptation of moving fast on sensitive stories, circumventing due journalistic norms.'[35] The Guild also called the lapses by The Wire 'condemnable' in a subsequent statement.[36]
Litigation
Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP in the Rajya Sabha and venture capitalist, filed a defamation suit in a Bangalore civil court after two articles suggested a conflict of interest between Chandrasekhar's role as a legislator and his investments in the Indian media and defence industries.[37][38] The court eventually ruled in favour of The Wire.[39][40]
Jay Shah
In 2017, Indian home ministerAmit Shah's son Jay Shah filed a criminal defamation case against the editors of The Wire for publishing an article titled The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah, noting irregularities in Jay Shah's business dealings and claiming that a company owned by him increased turnover 16,000 times in the year following the 2014 Indian general election.[41] The article alluded to [42][43] After various court mandated injunctions and appeals to higher courts, the Wire legal team withdrew a plea before the Supreme court in August 2019.[44][45] As of August 2019, the trial on the case was still pending, with Chief Justice of IndiaDipak Misra ordering that the trial be completed "as expeditiously as possible".[46][47]
Adityanath government
During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Wire came under the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath government's crackdown on journalists reporting on administrative failures and humanitarian crises.[48][49] This was a part of a pattern of escalating press freedom violations in Uttar Pradesh,[50][51] using of the Epidemics Diseases Act of 1897 to pressurise journalists.[52][49] Between April 2020 and June 2021, four separate FIRs alleging false information were lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police against various journalists working for the news outlet, including against one of its founding editors.[53] According to Reporters sans frontieres, the cases had no tangible evidence and amounted to harassment through litigation.[54] In September 2021, the Supreme Court of India responding to a petition against the FIRs, extended a 2 month protection from arrest to the journalists at The Wire over press freedom concerns but declined to quash them, instead directed the petitioners to approach the Allahabad High Court.[55][56][57]
Bharat Biotech
In February 2022, Bharat Biotech filed a defamation lawsuit of ₹100 crore (US$12 million) against The Wire and its editors over 14 articles that had reported on the pharmaceutical company and Covaxin, the Covid-19 vaccine developed by it.[58][59] Citing that the articles would lead to vaccine hesitancy,[60] a district court in Rangareddy, Telangana passed a temporary, ex parteinjunction to take down the articles.[61] As of March 2022, the court was scheduled to hear the matter.[59]
