Press Freedom in Kashmir under Siege

Danish Hameed
In Kashmir, freedom of expression and the press are under attack by the Indian government. Press freedom. It sounds like an abstract concept. Something you take for granted — until it disappears, until reporters are jailed, intimidated or murdered, until the publishers and editors buckle under pressure from their own government. Then you start to wonder what kind of world it would be if there were no press freedom. That’s not a hypothetical question. We can see for ourselves what happens. Look at the last four years in Kashmir, Journalists who have tried to cover the war, Conflicts have been harassed, attacked, or detained. Any journalist inside Kashmir must be extremely careful where they go and what they write. Brave citizen journalists have tried to fill the information gap and expose the gruesome atrocities and humanitarian disaster. But there are too many untold, searing stories of the widespread suffering and violence that are destroying Kashmir and taking so many people’s lives. So this catastrophe is unfolding largely out of sight and out of mind. I believe that truth exists and that good journalists try to get as close to the truth as possible. They represent our best defense against disinformation, corruption and governments that want to operate behind a shroud. The regime went full-throttle, using the police, paramilitary, the courts, whatever it could, to repress journalism. There’s hate against journalists by the police in uniform,” .This regime wants to destroy Kashmiri journalists, but it will be backfiring,” Journalists in Kashmir will reinvent themselves with new platforms. If anything, journalists’ voices have multiplied. They are finding one another, getting together, brainstorming on new ways to cover Kashmir. Indian government tries to silence them, using tools ranging from intimidation to arrest to violence. Journalists currently in jail, like Qazi shibli,Asif Sultan,or now Masrat Zahra and Gowhar Geelani were highlighted “They are journalists, not soldiers,” Efforts to undermine press freedom are sometimes more subtle. Often journalists find themselves targets of government-backed smear campaigns aimed at destroying their credibility, if not their lives.
All of us have a responsibility to fight those who try to replace truth with lies and those who try to turn journalism into a crime. We are strongest when we act in ways that respect our values. it is time to act.
Assaults on the media are more than just an occupational hazard. As Reporters without Borders points out, strategically targeting the media in an attempt “to control news and information violate[s] the guarantees enshrined in international law, in particular, article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Protocols Additional 1 and 2 to the Geneva Conventions.”Journalists are frequently threatened, physically assaulted, and jailed on trumped-up charges, including “endangering national security” or “terrorism”. Now I want to go back into Comrades like Qazi Shibli, Asif Sultan, Adil Farooq, Masrat Zahra. First of Qazi Shibli detained on July 25, 2019, after he tweeted an official order regarding the deployment of additional paramilitary troops across the region. He was held without contact with his family or a lawyer until his relatives finally located him at a jail in another state two months later. Now Asif Sultan, On August 31, 2018, police announced in a press release the arrest of Asif Sultan, accusing him of “harboring known terrorists.” The 30-year-old journalist from Srinagar’s Batamaloo area was booked under various sections and lastly Masrat Zahra,On 20 April, Masrat Zahra, a 26-year-old photojournalist from Kashmir, woke up to learn that the cyber police had booked her under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A press release by the Cyber Police Station. Fellow Journalist Masrat_Zahra Booking For reposting her December 2019 essay for The New Humanitarian on “Mental Health Crisis in Kashmir” speaks about the ignorance of police about facts/news vs Anti-national posts. Our Comrades You are not alone but Entire Nation is stand by you. Journalism is not a crime. Journalism is not terrorism. Journalism is an important cornerstone of freedom. Responsible reporting about the issues that shape people’s lives is a key building block of any free society. And this freedom matters. When journalists are threatened, arrested, attacked or otherwise cowed into silence, the truth dies. It is up to all of us to keep it alive. Journalists have the right to inform the public, for freedom of expression and to give those who go seldom unheard, a voice. But often, and especially in crime reporting, journalists come up against some serious legal problems that can impede their mission for news distribution and render their willing to speak freely, unjustified. No, there is nothing abstract about press freedom. All of us have a responsibility to fight those who try to replace truth with lies and those who try to turn journalism into a crime. We are strongest when we act in ways that respect our values. it is time to act. Those Journalists who are behind bars, they think like this, I would ask myself ‘Why am I in jail? I have committed no crime. I am in jail for the simple act of informing people, for doing my job.
(The author is pursuing Bachelors Degree at GDC Anantnag . Views are his own, [email protected])