FIR against journalists also names Satya Pal Malik, Pak media personality

The FIR, filed on May 9, by Guwahati resident Biju Verma alleged that in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, online news platform ‘The Wire’ and some of its authors and editors published a series of articles and commentaries (between late April and early May 2025) that “prima facie undermine India’s sovereignty and security, promote enmity and public disorder, and spread misinformation”. The complainant alleged that Karan Thapar had hosted a series of interviews on ‘The Wire’ with individuals such as Najam Sethi, Ashutosh Bharadwaj, and former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik (who died on August 5) wherein “grave and offensive remarks have been made against the Government of India, particularly in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack”. The publication of five articles by ‘The Wire’ in the immediate aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, ‘To War or Not to War’, ‘Over-Propaganda’, ‘After Operation Sindoor’, ‘Bludgeoning Kashmir Is Not the Answer’, and ‘IAF Rafale Downed by Pakistan’, systematically “erode the credibility of India’s armed forces, question the legitimacy of its sovereign responses, amplify hostile narratives without verification, and insidiously equate counter-terror operations with communal or electoral motives”.

Auteur: The Hills Times

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