New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) backed Modi regime along with establishment has now ordered local Kashmiri newspapers not to publish All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaderships’ statements and news including ground situation of the occupied territory.
Since the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A in administered Kashmir, APHC, civil society, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and other political leaders have faced relentless detentions, interrogations, arbitrary travel bans, and repressive media policies while they have been denied access to appeals or justice in courts and human rights bodies.
The socio-economic situation has deteriorated in Indian Administered Kashmir after the abrogation of articles 370 and 35A contrary to India’s false claim of normalcy and development in Indian Administered Kashmir.
The arbitrary arrests and harassment of journalists by Indian forces and their agencies, extrajudicial killings, detentions, sealing of properties, schools, institutions, land, other resources and termination of employees’ (so-called collective punishments) are also common in Indian Administered Kashmir.
Several journalists including, Asif Sultan, Manan Gulzar Dar, Fahad Shah and Sajad Gul are facing illegal detentions in different jails for reporting of ground situations in Indian Administered Kashmir and publishing Hurriyat news statements.
On 21 October, 2022 Kashmiri woman journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo was not allowed to visit to receive her award- in New York during the Pulitzer Prize award ceremony. Journalists reporting from Kashmir have always worked under immense pressure, facing intimidation, assaults, and arrests.
The media policy, announced by the Modi regime in May 2020, is a continuation of measures taken to curtail the free flow of information in and out of Kashmir. India wants to hide the ground realities of Indian Administered Kashmir from the world by criminalizing journalism in Kashmir and the International community is fully cognizant of India’s HRAs in Indian Administered Kashmir.
International Community must come forward to rescue independent media in Indian illegally occupied territory. India must also be pressurized to allow media to operate freely in the Indian Administered Kashmir.
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