BJP leader Kapil Mishra on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on a group of independent digital news portals called DIGIPUB India that alleged “malafide intentions” in police searches at the residences of senior editors of The Wire.
Mishra called the group’s members “urban naxals”.
His barbs were directed at the two journalists who signed off the first statement released by them. Mishra alleged that duo had deleted their statements. However, Digipub soon got back with clarification that there were some mistakes in the earlier version and a fresh statement would be soon released.
The mistake as it turns out was a rather technical one. The undersigned claimed that the searches were conducted following an FIR filed BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya. An individual doesn’t file an FIR. They can only lodge a complaint. The Police authorities file an FIR based on that complaint. The new version carries this information.
Why @dhanyarajendran run @DigipubIndia deleted their press-release signed by her and other urban naxals like @AbhinandanSekhr ?
The Wire was constantly spreading lies against India and causing hate and violence
Thanks @amitmalviya for taking a strong stand
— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) November 1, 2022
What must be noted that wire was one of the founding members of Digipub. The Foundation in its statement said, “A journalist or organisation that publishes a false report ought to be held accountable by peers and the civil society. But for the police to carry out an immediate and arbitrary search of the media house’s office and its editors’ homes, based entirely on a private complaint of defamation filed by a spokesperson of the ruling party, smacks of malafide intentions. Moreover, the danger of these searches being used as an excuse to seize and duplicate confidential and sensitive data held by The Wire cannot be dismissed.”
Digipub's statement on police searches on the homes of the editors and a reporter of The Wire pic.twitter.com/ewZCIZNL4C
— DIGIPUB News India Foundation (@DigipubIndia) November 1, 2022
However, it is still not understood what internal mechanism Digipub has to censor or monitor the content of its members. And how does one distinguish between a genuine mistake and agenda driven reporting to intentionally malign someone? Is just critiquing the content enough of a repercussion?
Further, in the digital news world anyone with a website is considered to be credible, and a journalist with a blue tick – a respectable source of information. Often foreign media takes up such reports and rehashes these articles to suit their audiences and narratives. The ramifications of a story like Tek-Fog or Meta are multi-stranded. Is an internal investigation and some chides from fellow journalists enough to get to the heart of the matter? These are some issues that the Digipub press release doesn’t answer.
On Monday evening, the Delhi Police conducted searches at the offices of The Wire and the residences of four of its editors – Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, Sidharth Bhatia and Jahnavi Sen in a case filed by BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya.
In his FIR, Malviya had accused the portal and its editors of cheating, forgery, defamation and criminal conspiracy for publishing stories claiming that any post on Instagram reported by him would be taken down by Meta without any review.
Reacting to the developments, Mishra said that DIGIPUB India had deleted its press release signed by Dhanya Rajendran, the editor news website The News Minute who also heads the collective.
“Why Dhanya Rajendran-run DIGIPUB India deleted their press-release signed by her and other urban naxals like Abhinandan Sekhari?”
“The Wire was constantly spreading lies against India and causing hate and violence. Thanks Amit Malviya for taking a strong stand,” he said in a tweet.
On Monday evening, DIGIPUB India apparently posted a press release on its official Twitter account but deleted it later. However, it posted another statement soon after, condemning the police searches. “Digipub is issuing a fresh statement, with corrections made to the previous statement,” it said in a tweet.
“A journalist or a media organisation that publishes a false report ought to be held accountable by their peers and civil society. But for the police to carry out an immediate and arbitrary search of editors’ homes, based entirely on a private complaint of defamation filed by a spokesperson of the ruling party, smacks of malafide intentions,” a statement said.
The Wire is one of the members of DIGIPUB, along with various other news portals including NewsClick, News Minute, Newslaundry, Article 14, Scroll, AltNews etc.
DIGIPUB also expressed serious concern over the danger of these searches “being used as an excuse to seize and duplicate confidential and sensitive data held by The Wire.”
The association also expressed concerns that the investigation could become “a tool to further worsen the already fraught state of journalism in India”.
Malviya’s complaint relates to a series of stories published by The Wire about the social media company Meta. The stories claimed that Malviya had special censorship privileges through an Instagram programme called X-Check.
The veracity of the stories was denied by Meta, which alleged that the documents and emails used were “fabricated”. Following this, The Wire retracted these articles on October 23, asserting that it had been deceived by a member of its investigating team.