THE HEADQUARTER OF THE OLDEST NEWS AGENCY UNI SEALED ON DELHI HIGH COURT ORDER, JOURNALISTS FORCIBLY REMOVED ,ASSAULT ON PRESS FREEDOM SAYS UNI
The headquarter of the United News of India , the oldest news agency running english and hindi, Urdu news service disseminating news at the pan India level and globally has been sealed yesterday evening when hundreds of Delhi police personal with some of the senior officers of ministry of Urban Development reached at 9 Rafi Marg office and forcibly entered the newsroom directing the reporters and senior journalists to immediately leave the office premises finally sealing it forcibly on the orders of the Court.
The United News of India has in a tweet strongly condemned this action terming it as an open assault on the freedom of Press.
It said : The sealing of the office of the United News of India, one of the country’s oldest and most respected news agencies, has raised serious concerns over the press freedom.
Meanwhile the member of parliament Santosh Kumar P from Communist Party of India has in a statement termed this action as BRUTAL CRACKDOWN ON UNI : A DIRECT ASSAULT ON PRESS FREEDOM AND DEMOCRSTIC RIGHTS.
IN A PRESS RELEASE HE SAID THAT the forcible takeover of the Rafi Marg office of United News of India (UNI), the oldest news agency in the country, by the Delhi Police is a grave and unprecedented assault on press freedom in India. Journalists were dragged and manhandled, even women journalists were not spared, and employees were denied the basic opportunity to collect their belongings or hear from management. The entire operation was carried out with shocking disregard for legality, dignity and democratic norms. The image of journalists being beaten inside their own newsroom is a chilling reminder of how fragile media freedom have become in India today,.
That this action followed swiftly, reportedly at the behest of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor, and was executed by a police force functioning directly under the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, raises serious concerns about the misuse of state power to intimidate and silence the media. This is not an isolated incident but part of a dangerous pattern where institutions are being bent to serve political ends. Such authoritarian overreach must be condemned unequivocally, and accountability must be fixed without delay said the statement by CPI MP Mr. Santosh. In a notice pasted outside the premises of the UNI it is said that the premises 9 Rafi Marg has been taken over by the Government of India on 20.3.2026 in pursuant of the judgement dated 20.3.26 of the Hin’ble High Court, Delhi. Any entry, use if the premises, accusation, by any person without authorisation of LAnd DO is strictly prohibited and will invite action under the law.
According to a senior journalist Kalura Abhinav working in UNI and present at the time of the forcible sealing of the UNI office : Hundreds of employees were thrown out of the gate in one stroke. The agency which had been working for 70 years was forcibly locked in the evening. I too have served in the agency for two and a half decades. The policemen behaved indecently while evacuating. Some male and female employees were pushed and thrown on the ground. They also used abusive language. The agency has been taken over. This may be a legal issue, but in the evening, the government officials who suddenly arrived with hundreds of policemen, suddenly asked the journalists who were busy making news in 10 minutes to leave the premises. The police mistreated several employees, and the way they treated female employees in particular was shameful. Female journalists were harassed, and several employees were pushed out. I’m posting some videos of this. A notice was posted at the gate said Kalura emphatically in a video released on social media.
