The News Craving
Newscraving Desk:
Srinagar,
Journalist Federation of Kashmir condemns the continued harassment and intimidation of the journalists in Kashmir. In the latest instance, Aakash Hassan, a journalist who majorly contributes to the British newspaper The Guardian, has been barred from travelling to Srilanka from Delhi’s IGI airport on July 26. He was detained at the airport and questioned by some officials as well.
Travel restriction against Hassan came on a day when Chief Justice of India N V Ramana said, “Journalists are the eyes and ears of the people and independent journalism is the backbone of democracy.” Although this is not the first time journalists from Kashmir have been denied their fundamental right to travel for professional, academic and personal reasons.
The ugly pattern of harassing journalists in Kashmir has amplified over the past few years and debarring them from travel is seen as a tactic by the authorities to coerce journalists into not reporting facts on the ground, people in power aren’t comfortable with.
JFK strongly condemns the pattern of intimidation and views it as continued attacks on freedom of press in Kashmir. Journalists in Kashmir have always worked under perilous conditions, holding up values of press freedom in the face of dangers to life and liberty.
The Supreme Court in a ruling in 2020 said “India’s freedoms will rest safe as long as journalists can speak truth to power without being chilled by a threat of reprisal.” It further said that “Deprivation of liberty even for a single day is one day too many.”
For a vibrant press to flourish in a society, authorities have to move beyond hollow claims of respect for press freedom and work towards a conducive environment where a journalist can report the facts on ground, express opinion on social media without fear and travel without restrictions, it said.