The Wire (Indian web publication)

The Wire
Type of site
 Journalism, news, analysis
Available in English, Hindi, Urdu
Headquarters First Floor, 13, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg, Gole Market, New Delhi, Delhi 110001, India
Owner Foundation for Independent Journalism (FIJ)
Editor Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M.K. Venu
Website https://thewire.in/
Alexa rank Increase 1035[1] (India, August 2018)
Commercial No
Launched 11 May 2015

The Wire is a news website published by the Foundation for Independent Journalism (FIJ), a non-profit Indian company.[2][3] It was founded in 2015 by editors Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, and MK Venu,[4] who also initially funded the site.[3] The Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF) has provided The Wire with funding as well,[3][5] and at least some of the website's articles have been written pro-bono.[6] It has also started publishing Urdu-language content.

The Wire's coverage principally focuses on the topics of “politics, foreign policy, political economy, science and development”, according to an article published on Livemint.com.[6] Founding editor 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” that supposedly afflict mainstream Indian news outlets.[6][7][8]

Background

A story published in the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) in late 2016 identified The Wire as one of several independent and recently founded internet-based media platforms - a group that also included Newslaundry, Scroll.in, The News Minute, TheQuint.com and ScoopWhoop - that were attempting to challenge the dominance of India’s traditional print and television news companies and their online offshoots.[7]

In 2015, Siddharth Varadarajan started The Wire, after he resigned from his position as editor at The Hindu citing the return of the editorship of the paper to being family run. The Wire's founding is construed to be a result of, and reaction to, a political environment that has discouraged dissent against the present Indian ruling BJP party.[7]

Lawsuits

Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Indian Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and venture capitalist Rajeev Chandrasekhar accused The Wire of conspiring against him with the country’s main opposition, the Congress Party, after the website published two articles suggesting that Chandrasekhar's major investments in the Indian media and defense industries might represent conflicts of interest with his role as a legislator.[9][10] Chandrasekhar subsequently filed suit in a Banglore civil court, alleging that The Wire's coverage of him was defamatory.[9] On March 2, 2017 the court passed an ex-parte injunction, ordering The Wire to block access to the two allegedly defamatory articles: 'Arnab's Republic, Modi's Ideology'[11] by Sandeep Bushan and 'In Whose Interests Do Our Soldiers March?'[12] by Sachin Rao.[9][10] Though The Wire removed both articles from its site, it has decided to challenge the court order.[9][10]

Jay Shah

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah filed a criminal defamation case against the editors of The Wire for printing an article titled 'The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah'.[13] A BJP-led coalition had formed the government at the centre following their win in the 2014 Indian general election, and Narendra Modi had become the Prime Minister. The article alluded to possible irregularities in Jay Shah's business dealings, claiming that the turnover of a company owned by him increased 16,000 times over in the year following the election.[14]

Jay Shah filed the case in court 13 of the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate against four editors/reporters of The Wire. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate SK Gadhvi ordered a court inquiry into the matter under CrPC section 202 to inquire into the case to decide whether or not there is sufficient ground for a case to be filed.[15] Observing that “prima facie it seems there is a case” against The Wire for its defamatory article against Shah, a metropolitan court issued summons to the reporter of the article and editors of the website to appear before it on November 13 in the criminal defamation case filed against them. The order also mentions Shah's contention that “the news portal didn’t give enough time to him to send his response, the article didn’t include the loss incurred by his company in the year 2015-2016, and created confusion over the turnover to defame him.”[16]

The Ahmedabad civil court on 23 December vacated the ex parte and interim injunction. The court lifted all restrictions except the use of words (after) “Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister/elected as Prime Minister.” The Wire called the lifting of the injunction a “victory for The Wire”, and that the “decision by the civil court is a vindication of The Wire's fundamental stand that its article had been a legitimate exercise of the freedom of expression in the public interest.”[17] However, the Gujarat High Court later reinstated the gag order and refused to quash the criminal defamation case filed by Jay Shah.[18] The Wire had appealed in the Supreme Court of India against this order. The Supreme Court of India asked the Gujarat trial court not to proceed till April 12 with the criminal defamation complaint.[19][20] Later, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra listed the matter to be heard on April 18 by a different bench of the Supreme Court. However, the bench had not been specified.[21]

References

  1. ↑ "thewire.in Site Info". Alexa Internet.
  2. ↑ Staff, The Wire. "How The Wire is Funded - The Wire". thewire.in. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  3. 1 2 3 Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita (2015-11-02). "Online portals seek a new face of journalism". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  4. ↑ "About Us - The Wire". thewire.in. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  5. ↑ "IPSMF | The Independent and Public-Spirited (IPS) Media Foundation". ipsmf.org. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Choudhary, Vidhi (8 May 2015). "Former editor of 'The Hindu' to launch news website". livemint.com. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 "Can the digital revolution save Indian journalism?". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  8. ↑ "Jay Shah files criminal defamation case against 'The Wire'". 9 October 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2017 – via The Economic Times.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Rajeev Chandrasekhar Says He's Fighting A Congress-Media Conspiracy". Huffington Post India. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  10. 1 2 3 Staff, Scroll. "In highly unusual move, Bengaluru court orders The Wire to remove articles on Rajeev Chandrasekhar". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  11. ↑ Arnab's Republic, Modi's Ideology
  12. ↑ In Whose Interests Do Our Soldiers March?
  13. ↑ The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah
  14. ↑ PTI (9 October 2017). "Jay Shah files criminal defamation case against 'The Wire'". TheHinduBusinessLine.com. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  15. ↑ "Jay Shah files criminal defamation case against 'The Wire'". 9 October 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2017 – via The Economic Times.
  16. ↑ "Jay Shah defamation case: Citing prima facie case, court summons reporter, editors". 25 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017 – via The Indian Express.
  17. ↑ "Court lifts stay on The Wire's story on Jay Shah". 23 December 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2018 – via newslaundry.com.
  18. ↑ Staff, Scroll. "Jay Shah defamation case: Gujarat High Court restores gag order on The Wire". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  19. ↑ "Supreme Court stays defamation proceedings by Jay Shah against news portal". The Economic Times. 2018-03-15. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  20. ↑ "Jay Shah Case: Supreme Court Asks Gujarat Court Not To Proceed With Defamation Case Against 'The Wire'". Outlook India. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  21. ↑ "Chief Justice Misra Assigns Jay Shah Case Against The Wire to Different SC Bench - The Wire". The Wire. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
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