The Delhi Union of Journalists(DUJ) welcomes the relief granted to four investigative journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskanta Das and Ayush Joshi, in a case of alleged defamation of Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL). We anxiously await the order on Paranjoy Guha Thakurta who has separately challenged the ex parte lower court order that gave blanket permission to AEL to demand the taking down of numerous YouTube videos and articles in print and digital media for alleged defamatory content.
The DUJ strongly believes that blanket orders to gag media reports, commentary or investigative articles are a blatant attack on free speech and press freedoms. The September 6, 2025 ex parte order of Senior Civil Judge Anuj Kumar Singh gave AEL permission to apply to Internet intermediaries to take down all URLs, posts, hyperlinks and articles that AEL considers defamatory. This order came without giving the affected journalists a chance to counter the charges against them. Besides naming these journalists the order includes ‘John Doe’ which omnibus category can include any anonymous persons.
On September 18, 2025 District Judge Ashish Aggarwal pointed out that the initial order did not specify which material was defamatory and left it to AEL to contact intermediaries who in turn would determine which articles were defamatory. He set aside the order against the four journalists.
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta has separately challenged the gag order in the court of District Judge Sunil Chaudhary. The matter was heard on Sept.18 and the order stands reserved. The DUJ is of the view that blanket bans on investigative journalism are ominous trends against freedom of the press and the right to inform.
The DUJ further blasts, the September 6, order that has been arbitrarily used by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to send notices to intermediaries demanding the takedown of an incredible 138 YouTube videos and 83 Instagram posts about the Adani conglomerate. This requires the removal of videos, within 36 hours, by leading digital media journalists like Ravish Kumar, Ajit Anjum, Dhruv Rathee, Akash Bannerjee, Deepak Sharma and Kunal Kamra and others as well as The Wire and NewsLaundry that refer to AEL. Many of these videos refer to news about Adani and his companies.
The Delhi Union of Journalists is of the firm view that such acts constitute an attack on the right of citizens to be informed and the right of journalists to practice their profession unfettered. We stand by our colleagues and the right to free speech.
Kudos to the District court judge for quashing the gag order of the Rohini court which restricted journalists from reporting on #ADANI. Shows that the judiciary is still alive in India. Govt had used this gag order to issue a sweeping takedown order on many journalists who wrote on Adani. Two cheers for Freedom of Speech!
–Prashant Bhushan
