New York Times article exposes India's curbs on press freedom in occupied Kashmir
World
'Journalists are routinely summoned by the police, interrogated, and threatened with charges'
(Dunya News) – An opinion piece published in the New York Times has exposed how the Bhartiya Janta Party’s (BJP) government has unleashed restrictions to crimp the press freedom in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The article titled ‘Modi’s Final Assault on India’s Press Freedom Has Begun’ has been written by Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of The Kashmir Times. She said her outlet could not survive Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the repressive media policies have damaged Kashmiri journalism and intimidated media outlets into serving as mouthpieces of the government.
“Journalists are routinely summoned by the police, interrogated, and threatened with charges such as income tax violations or terrorism or separatism. Several prominent journalists have been detained or sentenced to jail terms. We work under a cloud of fear. Many journalists self-censor or simply quit. Fearing arrest, some have fled into exile overseas,” she claimed.
“Since he took power in 2014, Mr. Modi has systematically debased India’s democratic ideals, bending courts and other government machinery to his will… if Mr. Modi succeeds in introducing the Kashmir model of information control to the rest of the country, it won’t be just press freedom that is at risk, but Indian democracy itself,” wrote the author.
“Journalism has always been hazardous in Kashmir. India and Pakistan both claim the mountainous region, which has been plagued by war and a separatist insurgency for decades. Journalists have been caught in the middle, threatened and intimidated by Indian security forces and militants, both of whom have wanted to control how the story is being told. At least 19 journalists were killed in Kashmir between 1990 and 2018,” she wrote, adding that actions being taken by the governments also posed threats to the Indian democracy.
