The Wire (India)
The Wire is an Indian news and opinion website founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, and M. K. Venu.
The publication's reporters have won several national and international awards, including three Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards and the CPJ International Press Freedom Award. It has been also subject to several defamation suits by businessmen and politicians; some of them have been described as strategic lawsuits against public participation.
Background
resigned from his position as editor at The Hindu citing the return of the editorship of the paper to being family run in 2013. On 11 May 2015, The Wire was started by Siddharth Varadarajan, 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 Indian company. The Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation has provided The Wire with funding as well.Varadarajan claims that the publication was created as a "platform for independent journalism", 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. The Wires founding is construed to be a result of, and reaction to, a political environment that has "discouraged dissent" against the present Indian ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
A story published in the Columbia Journalism Review 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, The Quint and ScoopWhoop - that were attempting to challenge the dominance of India's traditional print and television news companies and their online offshoots.
The Wires coverage principally focuses on the topics of "politics, foreign policy, political economy, science and development", according to an article published on Mint.
Reception
Three journalists, working for The Wire, have won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards. Neha Dixit, reporting on extrajudicial killings and illegal detentions, won the CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2017, Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons in 2016 and the Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize.Siddharth Vardarajan was awarded with the Shorenstein Prize in 2017. Jury member of the award Nayan Chanda mentioned that Vardarajan's independent web-based journalism-venture and distinguished body of well-researched reports was an epitome of journalistic excellence and innovation.
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.
A December 2019 article by Dexter Filkins of The New Yorker, noted The Wire is one of the few small outfits and the most prominent, 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.
On 1 April 2020, editor Vadarajan tweeted and claimed that Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath had insisted that Rama Navami fair will be held as usual and attributed false quote to him amidst Coronavirus lockdown in India. Later, he had clarified that quote was not of Yogi Adityanath. Two first information reports against Vadarajan were lodged in Faizabad under sections 505 and 188 of Indian Penal Code and under section 66D of Information Technology Act, 2000. The founding editors of The Wire described the FIRs as "politically motivated".
Lawsuits
Reliance Infrastructure
In response to one of their video-shows covering the Rafale deal controversy, Reliance Infrastructure had lodged a defamation case in Ahmedabad civil court for a cost of. It was part of a slew of defamation cases, filed against multiple media-organisations and were widely perceived to fall under the category of strategic lawsuits against public participation.Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Indian Member of Parliament for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and venture capitalist Rajeev Chandrasekhar filed a defamation suit in a Bangalore civil court, after two articles -- 'Arnab's Republic, Modi's Ideology' by Sandeep Bushan and 'In Whose Interests Do Our Soldiers March?' by Sachin Rao -- were published, suggesting that Chandrasekhar's major investments in the Indian media and defence industries represented conflicts of interest with some of his roles as a legislator.On 2 March 2017 the court passed an ex-parte injunction, ordering The Wire to block access to the two articles. The Wire complied but decided to challenge the court order. On February 2019, the court lifted the injunction and ruled in favour of The Wire, leading to reinstatement of the articles.
Jay Shah
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'. 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.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. 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 13 November 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."
The Ahmedabad civil court on 23 December vacated the ex parte and interim injunction. The court lifted all restrictions except the use of words "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 Wires fundamental stand that its article had been a legitimate exercise of the freedom of expression in the public interest." However, the Gujarat High court later reinstated the gag order and refused to quash the criminal defamation case filed by Jay Shah. 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 12 April with the criminal defamation complaint. Later, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra listed the matter to be heard on 18 April by a different bench of the Supreme Court. However, the bench had not been specified.
The Wire pleaded for the withdrawal of its plea seeking quashing of the defamation proceedings against it. The portal said they were ready for further proceedings in the Gujarat trial Court. The Supreme Court bench allowed the withdrawal on 27th August 2019. The court remarked that, "it has become a fashion to serve notice to a person for explanation and even before it can be answered, the articles are published within five to six hours" expressing it's anguish and also ordered that the trial be completed "as expeditiously as possible."