New Delhi: The Union government has ordered the blocking of the YouTube channel ‘4PM News’ on Thursday (March 12), citing national security and public order. The channel’s editor, Sanjay Sharma, has alleged that the government has been repeatedly banning the channel because of his sharp criticism.Speaking to The Wire, Sharma said that the email he received from YouTube provided no detailed explanation. It only stated that the action was being taken on the government’s instructions, citing national security and public order.Sharma said that he believes that the action may have been triggered by a recent video on his channel in which he interviewed Iranian professor Abbas. He said that recently he had asked on his channel as to why the Indian government was behaving in a particular way towards Iran despite it being a friendly country.The YouTube channel has been blocked only in India and can still be viewed abroad, he said.“This content is currently unavailable in this country because of an order from the government related to national security or public order. For more details about government removal requests, please visit the Google Transparency Report (transparencyreport.google.com),” the message on the YouTube page says.Last year, during the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 civilians were killed, Sharma’s channel was shut down as well, he said. Sharma said he had asked how the terrorists had managed to enter the area in his videos. After that, he claimed, complaints were sent to the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate seeking investigations against him. When the matter reached the Supreme Court, the government withdrew its order and the channel was restored.Sharma said that his channel had earlier been banned during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as well. He alleged that ever since Adityanath came to power in Uttar Pradesh, pressure has been continuously mounted on him to stop asking tough questions of the government.Sharma claimed that a government official had offered to give him Rs 10 crore annually if he stopped publishing certain headlines on the front page of his newspaper, as opposition politicians like Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh were tweeting about them.According to Sharma, after he refused, attempts were made to harass him through a false case. The complaint was based on an anonymous letter with no name or address, that accused him of possessing illegal property and plots of land. A six-member police team investigated him for nearly 10 months but found no illegal assets, he claimed.Sharma also claimed that an interview he conducted with Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh angered the government so much that the government-allotted flat given to him as a journalist was taken away. His accreditation was cancelled and his newspaper stopped receiving government advertisements. Troubled by these developments, he started his YouTube channel, which gained a large audience.He said that during the Uttar Pradesh elections, when his channel was first shut down, he started a new channel called UP4PM. At the same time, he continued a legal battle. After a notice to YouTube, the platform restored the channel and apologised, said Sharma.Sharma said his 4PM channel has about 8.5 million subscribers and around 10 million viewers, while UP4PM has about 1.8 million subscribers.