Srinagar: Many Kashmiri journalists refused to file fabricated stories on Kashmir and opted to resign from several English newspapers instead of the toeing the Modi regime’s line to advance the Hindutva agenda in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
Besides being prevented from reporting the real ground situation, military violence and atrocities, the newspaper owners were also forcing these journalists to prepare fabricated anti-Kashmir and pro-India, mostly carrying BJP-RSS narrative, news stories.
As per the media reports, Rising Kashmir and several other Srinagar and Jammu based newspapers are run and funded by the Indian army and Home Ministry to advance anti-Kashmir agenda. Journalists like Jahangir Sofi, Ishtiyaq Joo, Shaharar Bikhari and Yaqoob Ali who were working with English daily Rising Kashmir for past several years have quitted the newspaper.
Similarly in August, 2016, Kashmiri Journalist Naseer Ahmed had resigned from an Indian News channel saying that the channel was forcing him to file fabricated anti-Kashmir stories. There’s a lack of voices to speak on the targeting of journalists. Journalist associations have been silenced/ banned in the Indian occupied Kashmir.
Press Club of Kashmir has been shut down, the journalists face sedition charges under Indian government’s draconian laws. In most of the cases those who have been targeted are quietly accepting it as fait accompli. In Kashmir, journalists have often been under threat.
Threats to life, intimidation, assault, arrest and censorship have been part of the life of a typical local journalist. Since 2019, when Kashmir’s special status was revoked, several journalists have been jailed and called for questioning by the police.
Many have been put on the no-fly list and disallowed from travelling abroad. Recently, a Pulitzer winning Kashmiri journalist was stopped from flying to New York to receive the prize. India wants to conceal ground realities of Indian administered Kashmir from the world by criminalizing journalism in Kashmir. It is the responsibility of international community to come forward to rescue independent media in the Indian occupied territory.
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