POLICE VERSES SCRIBES
Ever since central government has decided to go for a massive lockdown in Kashmir including curbs on communication on August 5, last year, there have dozens of instances when local journalists were arrested, some of them bailed and many of them summoned to the police stations and interrogated.
In the past two days, three journalist including a female photojournalist were booked by cyber police under stringent law of UAPA. Many journalist bodies have expressed concern over such FIR’s in Kashmir valley and have asked authorities to stop such attitude, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown.
South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) has called the charges against Kashmiri journalists by Jammu and Kashmir Police “preposterous” and condemned “such harsh steps to intimidate and harass media-persons,” when the world fights against COVID-19 pandemic.
The media body said that the female photojournalist was doing nothing anti-national. The statement said, “Zahra maintains that she was simply sharing her published works on her social media account. In Ashiq Peerzada’s report, if it was a case of factual inaccuracy, the police could have issued a rebuttal as is normally the case,” said the SAWM.
The organization has called on the government to ensure journalists not be put in harm’s way or be harassed and has also demanded that charges be dropped.
In a statement, human rights group Amnesty International also urged the Centre to stop intimidation of journalists in Jammu and Kashmir.
UT administration should rethink about their present policy towards Kashmir based journalists and newspapers so that this atmosphere of fear and mistrust does not become profound in coming days. It is also unwarranted to take such action against journalists amid pandemic of COVID-19 when the entire society is trying to come out of this threat.
