News outlet The Wire on Saturday said that its English website was unblocked by the Union government after a report based on CNN’s coverage of Pakistani claims was taken down amid escalated tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

On Friday, internet service providers said that The Wire’s website was “blocked as per the order of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under the IT Act, 2000”.

Following this, the editors of the news outlet wrote to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, seeking an explanation for the blocking order.

“The ministry’s email, which was received at 9:41 pm on May 9, said that thewire.in was blocked based on blocking request it had received regarding the article,” the news outlet stated.

It added that the Centre had said the website was “blocked due to the technical limitation that in the case of https websites, only full domains can be blocked, and sub-pages cannot be blocked”.

“The Wire was requested to take appropriate action regarding that content and ‘inform the action taken, which would enable the ministry to unblock the website’,” stated the news outlet.

It said it removed the story in compliance with the “unfair demand” and informed the Centre of this at 10.40 pm.

The news outlet’s editors said it was “surprising” that the Union government had not issued a notice to take down the report before issuing the blocking orders.

“Even in the exercise of emergency powers, the first step is a direction to the concerned party under the relevant rules,” they said.

Describing the government’s action as an “unconstitutional attack on press freedom”, they noted that the CNN’s report “and all other international media reporting of its contents remains fully accessible in India, and that the websites of these news platforms have not been blocked in the way The Wire’s was”.

On Thursday, India blocked the social media accounts of at least four other news outlets – Maktoob Media, The Kashmiriyat, Free Press Kashmir and the United States-based Muslim.

The accounts of the news outlets were blocked in response to legal demands by the Indian government, according to social media platforms X and Instagram.

The accounts of Maktoob Media, Free Press Kashmir and The Kashmiriyat have been blocked on X, while that of Muslim has been blocked on Instagram. However, the websites of all four news outlets were accessible in India.

This came amid escalating tensions and cross-border strikes between India and Pakistan after the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.

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