Sreenivasan R

One the richest, most powerful & well connected businessman in the world is fighting small independent you-tubers. A man who owns one of India's biggest media conglomerates is discovering that news content creators with one camera - broadcasting from one room - have one thing ....that money cant buy. During India's First Emergency (besides the notable exception of @IndianExpress) - it were the smaller independent publications that stood their ground & gave Indira Gandhi a tough time. Publications like #Himmat & #Pratap didn't bend despite hundreds of journalists being sent to jail & courts being a mute spectator. Today, 50yrs down the line - as history repeats itself, we at @thedeshbhakt are proud to keep that tradition alive along with a select group of individuals. The tradition of questioning people in power & not bending to money & muscle. On the 16th of September - a Delhi Court passed an ex-parte injunction order against nine journalists & organisations (including @paranjoygt & @t_d_h_nair) who had been regularly reporting on Adani. While such orders have become mundane in New India - what set this apart was a 'John Doe' on the 10th defendant. This basically allowed Adani to make a list of people that IT THOUGHT was making 'defamatory content' against it - these people were not even NAMED in the defamation suit. Now independent youtubers & publications such as @ravish_journo, @ajitanjum, @newslaundry, @dhruv_rathee, @abhisar_sharma and yours truly have been given 36 hours to delete over 200 pieces of content - without any opportunity to contest this order. Whatever your political leanings may be - know that this is now beyond politics and this silencing will impact everyone. We take this move as a compliment and this is testament to the power & credibility that small independent Digital Publications have been able to garner. We thank each and every member of the Deshbhakt family for their trust and support. We do not know when OR IF the higher courts will reverse this alarming order - but we will carry on our mission to punch up, question everything & fight for our Democracy. As for the legal angle - there is a laundry list of businessmen who tried to silence journalists using the courts - usually it didn't end very well for them.