The Kashmir Press Club and the Kashmir Editors guild have denounced the summoning of a journalist to a police station and slapping him for alleged misreporting.

While condemning the incident, the Kashmir Press Club, in a statement, said the behaviour of the police towards a young journalist Aquib Javeed is unacceptable. Javeed is also an executive member of the Kashmir Press Club.

“He was summoned to the cyber police station on Saturday in connection with a story he had written recently for a news portal. As per his account which has been published today he was slapped by a ‘masked’ policeman. Aquib also mentions that he was abused during this time,” said the body.

“Hitting/slapping or abusing a Journalist in connection with a story he or she has written cannot be accepted in any society and goes against the freedom of the press.”

The KPC also sought intervention of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and senior officers of the department.

“We urge the L-G of J&K to look into these issues of difficulties faced by the journalists while performing their professional duties in Kashmir valley,” said the Kashmir Press Club.

The KPC said summons to reporters by the police for their stories has become a routine practice in Kashmir now.

“The club demands an end to this practice. The administration should work out a mechanism so that a conducive atmosphere is available for journalists to deliver their duties without fear and reprisals,” said the body.

Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) also condemned the police for abusing the journalist.

Police spokesman said It was reliably learnt that one story captioned “The Real Cyber Bully: Police in Kashmir Question Kashmir Twitter” was published on “Article-14” an online news portal. In the story, the writer depicted a misleading picture with incorrect detail, said the police spokesman.

“The headline and the picture with some of the content were factually incorrect hence misleading. The writer published a picture of a building showing it as Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar, which is incorrect. The fact of the matter is that the Cyber Police Station was notified as a Police Station in October 2019 and was established in the upper storey of the Police Station Shergari building. The said writer has misled the general public about the functioning of Cyber Police Station and its establishment.”

The spokesman said writer was called in the Cyber Police Station Kashmir in connection with clarification of facts mentioned in the article.

“The writer admitted that the picture published in the article is incorrect and has also admitted that he has no knowledge about the functioning and establishment of Cyber Police Station in Kashmir. Further, the writer also admitted that he has never visited Cyber Police Station and has no knowledge regarding establishment of Cyber Police Station Kashmir at Shergari Complex. The writer and other accompanying (senior journalists) regretted the incorrect detail and assured that the story will be tweaked accordingly,” said the officer.

The writer accompanying other senior journalists, said the spokesman, met the SP in-charge of the cyber police station and showed the tweaked story and regretted publishing incorrect/ misleading content. “The allegation of excesses by Police officials/officers, published subsequently by Article-14 and other Social Media handle is misleading and factually incorrect, hence refuted,” said the spokesman.