Uttar Pradesh: FIR against the Wire, two journalists for video report on Barabanki mosque demolition

The Barabanki police in Uttar Pradesh filed an FIR against the Wire for spreading "false information" on the demolition of a mosque in Ram Sanehi Ghat city.

The Wire had published a video report on June 23 on the demolition of the mosque, which the administration had claimed was an "illegal structure". The FIR named two journalists with the news portal - Seraj Ali and Mukul S Chauhan - as well as Mohammad Naeem, who figured in the video, and Mohammad Anees, a member of the mosque committee, the Wire reported.

Express quoted the Barabanki district magistrate Adarsh Singh as saying: "The video contains several wrong and baseless statements, including the one which says that the administration and police threw religious scriptures in drain and river. This is false. Nothing of this sort happened. With misinformation like this, the Wire is trying to spread animosity in society and disturbing communal harmony."

The complaint was lodged by a police officer, based on which the FIR was lodged. The FIR was registered under penal charges including promoting enmity, criminal conspiracy, and wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

In a statement, the Wire's founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan said this is the fourth FIR filed by the UP police against the portal in the last 14 months and that all the cases are "baseless".

"The Adityanath government does not believe in media freedom," the statement said, "and is criminalising the work of journalists who are reporting what is happening in the state."

The 100-year-old mosque had been demolished in May. The Barabanki administration had not referred to it as a mosque; instead, they called it an "illegal residential complex". The Allahabad High Court recently issued a notice in a plea challenging the mosque's demolition and asking that it be reconstructed.

Update: A previous version of this story said the FIR was filed against three journalists of the Wire. This is incorrect; the FIR names two journalists while Mohammad Anees is a member of the mosque committee. The headline has been updated as well.