An Australian news outlet focusing on South Asia on Friday broke its silence on Canada banning its social media content purportedly after it covered the joint media conference of external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and his Australian counterpart Penny Wong and also published a separate interview with him.

Thanking the media outlets that stood by it, managing editor of The Australia Today, Jitarth Jai Bharadwaj, posted on X: “The recent restriction and ban on our interview with Indian External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar and the press conference with Australian Foreign Minister @SenatorWong on #socialmedia, under orders from the Canadian government, have been difficult for our team and those who value free and open #journalism.”

External affairs ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal had on Thursday billed the ban as an example of Canada’s hypocrisy towards freedom of speech.

Responding to a question on the ban, Jaiswal had said: “This happened just an hour or so, a few hours after this particular handle carried the news conference of external affairs minister along with Penny Wong. And the particular media outlet also had several articles on the visit of the external affairs minister (to Australia) as also an interview of the external affairs minister, so we were surprised. It looks strange to us.

“But nonetheless, these are actions which yet again highlight the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech. You would have seen that the EAM in his media engagement spoke about three things — Canada making allegations... without any specific evidence; the surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada, which he termed unacceptable; and the political space being given in Canada to anti-India elements. So you can draw your conclusions on why Australia Today channel was blocked by Canada.”