Full Interview: https://bit.ly/NLInterviewSVaradarajan
On April 1, the Uttar Pradesh police filed two first information reports against The Wire and its founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan. In a detailed, FAQ, The Wire has explained its position on the police complaints.
In this interview, Varadarajan and Manisha Pande discuss the sequence of events that led up to the police complaints and what it means for press freedom. Varadarajan explains the procedures The Wire follows in case of errors in an article and how they had stuck to it in this case by issuing a clarification. He says the FIRs may not have much to do with the wrongful attribution of a quote to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath . “I think what really got his goat, Mrutyunjay [Kumar, media advisor to UP CM] and his bosses, was the fact that we were drawing attention to across-the-board carelessness by religious figures such as Mr Adityanath.” Varadarajan goes on to say that when it comes to criminalisation of speech and media freedom, ideology should not matter. “My own views have been consistent in this matter.”
Manisha also asks Varadarajan what he thinks of the state of censorship in Big Media and the challenges that lie ahead in terms of revenue. Varadrajan says things may get rough for big media operations but this is a great time for smaller operations for The Wire, which survives on donations.
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