By The South Asia Times

NEW DELHI - The Indian government's actions against independent foreign media outlets continue, in the latest move, the New Delhi authorities banned prominent news outlet, The South Asia Times in their country.

The South Asia Times, an independent news source, covers India, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Turkiye, Gulf countries, the EU and the US and provides authentic and timely news to its readers.

On Thursday, the Indian authorities said they banned The South Asia Times after publishing some opinion pieces by Human Rights experts over the ongoing human rights violations in India. 

 Internet censorship in India, an Indian government organization, monitoring international media outlets, said they have banned The South Asia Times due to published “ propaganda articles.”

The South Asia Times management strongly condemned the ban and rejected the Indian government's allegations of “propaganda articles.”

“We are an independent organization, provide authentic news to our readers across the region, and will never accept any blackmailing or pressure from anyone to dictate us over our contents,” said TSAT in a statement. 

“This is not the first time that the Indian government tried to stop the access of our news to Indian citizens, previously New Delhi also tried to report our website and Twitter handles and halt its access,” it's said.

TSAT demanded from world press organizations and the UN to take action against this Indian government action which is against the freedom of the press and all international laws related to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. 

In February, the Indian authorities also raided offices of the British broadcaster BBC in New Delhi and Mumbai after BBC  unaired an episode of the two-part BBC documentary investigating Modi’s alleged role in 2002 riots in Gujarat.

Journalists and Press freedom organizations strongly condemned the Indian government's actions and The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Indian authorities to stop harassing journalists

“Raiding the BBC’s India offices in the wake of a documentary criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi smacks of intimidation,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator in a statement.

 “Indian authorities have used tax investigations as a pretext to target critical news outlets before, and must cease harassing BBC employees immediately, in line with the values of freedom that should be espoused in the world’s largest democracy.”

The Indian government also ordered YouTube and Twitter to take down links sharing the first episode of the two-part BBC documentary investigating Modi’s alleged role in 2002 riots in Gujarat.

Last year, Ten prominent and leading world organizations including The organizations are Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House, PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, International Federation of Journalists, CIVICUS, Access Now, International Commission of Jurists, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, warned that Media Freedom Under Threat in India and demanded to the New Delhi to Stop Targeting, Prosecuting Journalists and Online Critics,