The Twitter handle of news portal Newsclick has been restored after it was suspended on August 12. The suspension took place days after The New York Times alleged the news site was among Chinese propaganda outlets being funded by American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham.
After the suspension, a source at Newsclick had told The Wire: “We have not received any email informing us about the suspension of the website’s Twitter handle. We have filed an appeal and are awaiting their response now.”
NYT’s report on August 5 cited “corporate filings” to indicate that Singham had financed Newsclick and the news website purportedly “sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points”.
Newsclick has termed all the allegations against it as “false and misleading”, “unfounded and without basis in fact or law”. Multiple press groups said the allegations are “unwarranted and condemnable”. The media house had been the target of a raid by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021.
Notably, BJP ministers skipped their usual shunning of Western media. Instead, Anurag Thakur and Rajeev Chandrasekhar held a press conference on NYT’s report to claim China, the Indian National Congress and Newsclick are part of an “umbilical cord”. Read all about it here.
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