Al Jazeera Was Taken Off Air in India Over Kashmir Maps, Lost Its Security Clearance Over a Kashmir Film, and Reported the Capture of a Pilot That Pakistan's Own Army Denied

On 11 May 2025, at a press conference, the Pakistan Army’s spokesman, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, was asked about a report that Pakistan was holding a captured Indian Air Force pilot. He said: “There is no Indian pilot in our custody.”

Two days earlier, on 9 May, Al Jazeera correspondent Kamal Hyder had reported otherwise. DFRAC, a fact-checking group, wrote that Hyder said, citing unnamed Pakistani military sources, that Pakistani forces had captured an Indian Air Force pilot, Squadron Leader Shivani Singh, after shooting down the Rafale she was flying. WION reported that a video of Hyder was being widely shared as confirmation. On 10 May, WION said, India’s Press Information Bureau fact-checked social media posts making the claim and marked them “FAKE.” On 12 May, Inshorts reported, PIB Fact Check described the Al Jazeera report itself as false, and India’s position was that no IAF pilot had been captured. None of the sources reviewed for this article records a published Al Jazeera correction.

The rest of Al Jazeera’s record in India comes from government orders and fact-checks, set out below with the network’s replies where they exist.

Five days off air over a map

In early April 2015, an inter-ministerial committee acting on instructions from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered Al Jazeera English off the air in India for five days. TIME reported the reason: maps the channel had shown in 2013 and 2014 displayed parts of Kashmir as belonging to Pakistan and China, without marking them as disputed. The Surveyor General also noted that the maps left out the Andaman and Lakshadweep islands.

Al Jazeera called the order censorship. Its managing director, Al Anstey, said: “This ban is a disproportionate response to an issue that we fixed promptly after it was pointed out.” The channel said it had changed its maps from 22 September 2014, using dotted lines and distinct shading for disputed areas, after Indian authorities flagged the error.

A security clearance withdrawn

Al Jazeera received security clearance to broadcast in India on 3 December 2010. The Home Ministry withdrew it on 29 May 2018, after the channel aired a documentary on militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. The Quint attributes the decision to sources and quotes no government statement explaining it. Al Jazeera’s reply was that the film “dedicated 10 minutes in the documentary to the government’s efforts and the view of its officials.” The channel filed a review petition with the Home Ministry.

A minister’s words, attributed to him

In July 2026, Republic reported that PIB Fact Check had called an Al Jazeera English post on X “false and misleading.” According to the report, the post attributed to Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi the remark that paper leaks cannot be prevented despite best efforts. The minister’s own post on X, from the same period, says: “Even Priyanka Vadra had acknowledged that, despite their best efforts, paper leaks could not be prevented.” PIB’s position, as Republic reported it, was that Joshi was quoting the Congress leader. This article could not retrieve Al Jazeera’s original post or any reply from the network.

What the owner’s government did

Al Jazeera is owned by the Emir of Qatar, as the ownership record sets out. On 5 June 2022, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned India’s ambassador, Deepak Mittal, over remarks about the Prophet Muhammad by BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal. India TV reported that Qatar expected a public apology and condemnation from the Government of India. The ambassador replied that the tweets did not reflect the government’s views and were those of fringe elements. The BJP suspended both spokespersons, and Qatar welcomed the suspension.

No source reviewed for this article links Qatar’s diplomatic position to any Al Jazeera editorial decision. The two are placed together here only because the first is an action by the network’s owner and the second is the network’s coverage of India.

What its media institute published

On 15 May 2025, the Al Jazeera Media Institute published “Indian Media Fuels Panic with Disinformation,” by Junaid Kathju. It names Times Now Navbharat, Zee News, India TV, ABP News and NDTV among channels it said aired false claims during the same conflict, including footage of Israeli attacks on Gaza presented as Indian strikes in Pakistan. Al Jazeera’s Media Institute published that list three days after PIB Fact Check called the network’s own pilot report false.

Pakistan’s turn

In August 2026, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting accused Al Jazeera of “selective reporting” from “handpicked polling stations” in Muzaffarabad during elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to ThePrint, after the network covered protests there. Access to Al Jazeera English was reported blocked in parts of Pakistan. The Pakistani government had not announced a formal ban.