Curbs on Kashmir Media: PCI Chief asked to withdraw intervention

Various media organisations led by the Press Club of India and Press Association on Tuesday urged Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, a retired Supreme Court judge, to withdraw the intervention application filed in the Apex Court over a petition by Kashmir Times executive editor Anuradha Bhasin against the drastic curbs on the media in the Kashmir valley.

In a resolution adopted after a 90-minute meeting at the Press Club of India, the journalists felt the Press Council should have stood with the harassed Kashmir media instead of creating confusion by offering to assist the court in deciding the editor's writ petition "justly in the interest of the freedom of press as well as in the national interest."

The journalists alleged that the Chairman has brought in the angle of "national interest of integrity and sovereignty" in the intervention application instead of supporting the editor's writ petition.

The application wants the PCI to present its views before the Court "since the present writ petition concerns the rights of the journalists/media for free and fair reporting on the one hand and national interest of integrity and sovereignty on the other hand."

Journalists noted that the government has not accused any of the Kashmir newspapers as anti-national or violating integrity and sovereignty of India and hence they expressed surprise what prompted the Press Council chairman to juxtapose these issues with the editor's petition.

They also noted that most of the Kashmir dailies are lying closed or coming out with just two pages with hardly any circulation because of the locked-down valley and journalists in the valley are not allowed any movement to gather news nor are their internet and phone facilities operative to carry on their professional duties.