ISLAMABAD – Paris-based Reporters Without Borders or Reporters SansFrontières (RSF) has strongly condemning the exclusion of a dozen ofaccredited Kashmiri reporters from covering a function in Srinagar byIndian police has said that barring these reporters was a serious pressfreedom violation.
The police had prevented several journalists from covering Indian RepublicDay function in Srinagar on 26th January.
The RSF in a statement posted on its website said that Indian securityofficials cited “adverse reports” as grounds for preventing the journalistsfrom entering a stadium, the site of the event, although they were dulyaccredited by the authorities of the occupied territory.
“This blatant press freedom violation is all the more shocking because itconcerns a key Republic of India event involving the rule of law,” saidDaniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.
“This police-imposed ban has all the hallmarks of a measure designed tointimidate journalists who do not toe the Indian government line and aretherefore being blacklisted. We urge the Jammu and Kashmir stateauthorities to shed light on this unacceptable decision and to end thesurge in abuses affecting journalists in the Kashmir Valley,” he added.
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The Indian security services have been stepping up press freedom violationsof late in Kashmir, the statement said. As reported by RSF, policedeliberately fired shotgun pellets at reporters last week, injuring four ofthem. Kashmir Narrator journalist Aasif Sultan has been held for more thanfive months on completely specious grounds, it added.
The statement said that the plight of journalists in occupied Kashmir wasone of the many reasons why India was ranked no better than 138th out of180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index.