Another David and Goliath fight and the freedom of the press

The biblical story of little David taking down the giant Goliath does not always play out in real life that way. Despite all his craftiness and chutzpah, David is fallible, allowing Goliath to crush the challenger. Something similar happened at the news website, The Wire, which sadly failed in the editorial rigour it prided itself on and lost its USP. The crowd-funded site had taken slingshots at not just one but two Goliaths, social media colossus Meta and the ruling BJP. Both attacks were off-target. While one of the behemoths has since gone for its jugular, the other hasn’t put the squeeze just yet.

It all started with The Wire running an investigative series alleging Meta took down anti-regime posts at the behest of BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya. It refused to concede for a while when Meta pointed its finger at the spurious documentation the reports had relied on. That its initial stories on the series carried the byline of one of its celebrated founders complicated matters further. When more evidence nailed its lie, the news portal first put the series on hold and then withdrew it in full. When realisation dawned on the gravity of its blunder, it threw the journalist who had sourced the now discredited documents under the bus, filing a police complaint that accused him of mental imbalance. Editorial oversight could happen in the best of newsrooms across the world. But the most acceptable process is to put out a quick retraction with an unqualified apology and initiate swift disciplinary action. Getting a journalist booked goes against the basic tenets of freedom of the press. 

Shortly after the retraction, the establishment swooped down on The Wire following a complaint from Malviya. It extensively searched the premises of its top journalists. It seized electronic gadgets, including laptops and mobile phones, without giving them the hash value of the digital devices they sought to avoid planting evidence against them in future. The Wire has had a stellar past, like its expose on the Pegasus snoop gate. Its apprehension that its electronic footprint could reveal sources—media organisations are so protective of—is not unfounded. If Meta were to sue it in the US, it could be a double whammy. Any way it pans out, this newspaper stands by the freedom of the press. It must be upheld in its letter and spirit.