Is muzzling the media in Kashmir serving the interests of New Delhi ?

Is it good strategic thinking that prompted the Government to muzzle the media in Kashmir? One can never tell but the fact is that Kashmiri media, even the Youtubers who have mushroomed in districts, are now pale shadows of what they were before August 2019 and have stopped raising issues that agitate the people.

The result has been a loss of credibility for local newspapers, which have lost readers and are full of government press releases. People have begun banking on national and international media to learn about developments. Journalists, once a thriving community, and photo journalists are leaving the profession or leaving the state.

On January 17, the temperature was a chilling minus five degrees Celsius in Srinagar when the government shut down the Kashmir Press Club (KPC), a meeting point for journalists to gather and exchange information. Local media houses, like media houses elsewhere in the country, depended on government accommodation and advertising from the government. With hardly any big corporate house or business in Kashmir, they had few options. But after August 5, 2019 advertisements were stopped to several broadsheets. Kashmir Times, one of the oldest and much respected English language newspaper, had to fold up after the management was asked to vacate its office in Srinagar, operating out of a government allocated accommodation. The Jammu headquartered newspaper had to suspend publication for quite some time.

In June 2020, the government rolled out a new media policy, which mandated the Department of Information to monitor content published by the newspapers. A journalist body took over a month to muster courage to protest but the newspapers have ‘voluntarily’ decided to be discreet. Police and other agencies have stepped up intimidation of journalists and several reporters were slapped with charges under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and UAPA.

Last week, Fahad Shah, a Srinagar based editor was arrested for the third time in a month after the court granted him bail in earlier cases. Sajad Gul, a freelance journalist from North Kashmir’s Bandipora district, was booked under PSA for posting a video on social media.

Having run out of finances, with jobs having run dry and with agencies breathing down their neck, journalists are a harried lot. They get little sympathy from the people who are hostile and have no use for journalists and journalism in the state. Last month the court of Executive Magistrate Shopian directed police to arrest prominent journalist and author Gowhar Geelani after he failed to appear before the court. Geelani had been served notice under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC.

Readers in the Valley have lost faith in the local press. Stories critical of even government departments and civic bodies have disappeared from the newspapers. Stories critical of the government are non-existent. Political commentaries are also missing from the opinion pages as most newspapers have begun to follow the guidelines and style sheets given to them informally by the agencies.

The strong-arm tactics have slowed down the decentralization of the media. Fresh graduates from journalism schools in small towns and villages had started web portals and YouTube channels to flag issues concerning their communities. But they too have been forced to fall in line.

Who is this policy going to benefit eventually is a question that is neither being raised nor answered.

(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)