Several journalists claimed that armed forces personnel stopped them from covering the Republic Day function in Srinagar on Saturday.
The journalists were allegedly told there are “adverse police reports” about them. They said they were denied entry despite the Information Department having issued passes to them to cover the function.
Those stopped include Tausseef Mustafa of Agence France Press, Danish Ismail of Reuters, Aman Farooq of Greater Kashmir; video journalists Umer Mehraj and Mehrajuddin of Associated Press.
The press fraternity boycotted functions in Srinagar in solidarity with other journalists and staged protests. “Blacklist us all,” read banners as they took out a protest march at Lal Chowk.
The Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) issued a statement condemning security personnel’s action.
“The action by the security men on the ground suggests that the security establishment wishes to frighten the media by not allowing them to carry out their professional duties,” it said in a statement.
KEG said the state government should take strict action against the police officers who sought to muzzle the press and take steps to create a situation where media can function freely and discharge its duty to the citizens by providing information on the happenings in the state.
Condemning the incident, Peoples Conference chairman Sajjad Gani Lone said, “You can’t define journalism and journalists through the security prism.”
Today’s incident comes during a time when there are concerns over increasing cases of assault on journalists in the Valley.
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) in a statement early this week said it was deeply concerned over the assault on photojournalists who were covering an encounter in Shopian district on January 22.
