Jammu and Kashmir

The Press Guild of Kashmir has condemned the fresh curbs on media in Kashmir in the wake of curfew restrictions. The Guild reminded the government of its commitment made to all the representative bodies of the media groups the other day. With the curfew remaining in place in most of the Valley areas, the police and security forces are not honouring the curfew passes issued to the media persons by...

A journalist whose wife and two daughters fainted after teargas seeped into their house has been prevented from meeting them for two days after curfew passes were declared invalid, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) has reported. The details: [ Link] Izhar Wani of the French news agency AFP has been desperate to get home to meet his wife and daughters Saira, 10, and Saba, 6. All three were alone...

Even as the authorities claimed to have issued a few curfew passes to media persons in Kashmir, police on Friday severely beat up senior journalist Riyaz Masroor, working with the Urdu service of BBC, outside his Alocha Bagh residence in Srinagar. “I received a phone call from the Information Department this morning asking me to come and collect the fresh curfew passes. As soon as I reached near...

The Jammu and Kashmir government has sealed the presses of three newspapers in Jammu for 'printing inflammatory material'. The printing presses were sealed on Thursday night and the publications suspended indefinitely on the orders of Jammu Deputy Commissioner MK Dwivedi. Three newspapers ( The Shadow, Early Times and Glimpses of Future) were publishing "inflammatory material," said a notice...

Indian policemen on Monday gave Gowhar Bhat, a reporter for the Greater Kashmir daily, a beating on a street in Srinagar, the capital of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Led by Sub-Inspector Javaid Ahmad of the Kothibagh district police station, the policemen attacked Bhat while he was covering a People’s Democratic Party demonstration. “I...

Ten journalists, mostly of them photojournalists, were injured on Sunday when police and paramilitary personnel beat them up while they were covering anti-election demonstrations during the fourth phase of the Assembly polls in North Kashmir's Sopore constituency. The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital where from one of the seriously injured—Mukhtar Khan of AP—was shifted to a hospital...

The Jammu and Kashmir government has asked the local press to refrain from publication of advertisements of separatists asking people to boycott the elections in the state or be ready to lose its advertisements, the Press Trust of India (PTI) has reported [ Link]. "You are advised to please refrain from publication of objectionable and seditious material in your newspapers failing which the...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has voiced its full solidarity with journalists in Jammu & Kashmir, who have undergone one of the worst periods in decades since the outbreak of protests in early August. The press freedom violations have taken a heavy toll, with a cameraman killed, more than 30 journalists beaten by security forces, local TV stations censored and newspapers unable to publish...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Indian authorities to protect journalists and lift restrictions on media workers in curfew-bound Jammu and Kashmir after a cameraman was killed and a near-total news blackout hit the main city of Srinagar. Srinagar newspapers did not reach the stands today for the fifth consecutive day and cable operators shut down international news broadcasts...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on Indian authorities to put an immediate stop to the censorship and violence against the media in Kashmir that has been prompted by a wave of protests against Indian rule. At least 13 journalists were beaten by police yesterday in Srinagar, local TV stations are being censored and a curfew is making it hard for newspapers to bring out their issues....