Srinagar, July 10: For the third consecutive day, no newspapers were published from Indian administered Kashmir owing to the curfew and curbs imposed on the media.
Kashmir press office closed due to curfew
No local English and Urdu newspaper hit the stands on Saturday for the third consecutive day after tougher curfew was imposed by the authorities on Wednesday to thwart peoples protests against the killings.
The curfew was imposed on Tuesday afternoon after four persons including a 25-year old woman were killed in police and paramilitary soldiers firing in Batamaloo and Maisuma areas of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, triggering massive anti-India demonstrations.
The authorities called in army to control the anger and prevent people from taking to roads and staging anti-India demonstrations. The authorities also imposed a media gag by denying mediamen new curfew passes after the old ones were declared null and void.
Although the curfew was relaxed from Friday evening and media curbs eased but the local newspaper and journalist organizations decided to suspend the publication for Saturday to protest against the curbs imposed by the Indian Kashmir government on media men.
This was for the first time after 2008 land row agitation that newspapers could not be published in Indian Kashmir owing to curfew and media curbs.
Editor of a Kashmir Images (local English newspaper), Bashir Manzor has said that editors of various local unanimously decided to suspend the publication of newspapers till Saturday. “We demand that sufficient curfew passes be issued.
Besides, want to seek the assurance from the government that distributors and hawkers will be allowed to distribute the newspapers,” he added.
Meanwhile, editors, working journalists, photo journalists and video journalists in a joint statement castigated Government’s discriminatory attitude towards Kashmir based media persons who were denied access to information and events but the journalists coming from Indian capital Delhi were treated as special guests and all facilities were extended to them.
“Curfew passes were cancelled, media persons were beaten and forced to remain indoors and the government has the cheek to say that there were no restrictions,” the statement said.
“When the members were discussing the situation, one senior journalist Riyaz Masroor was beaten and left with a fractured arm,” the statement added.
The statement said that members would have another meeting Saturday to review the situation and chalk out future strategy accordingly.
Meanwhile, police have registered a case against a private Indian television channel NewsX for allegedly instigating violence in South kashmir by running incorrect news about the death of a person in police firing. An FIR was filed in main Pulwama town police station against the television channel and its correspondents for running a wrong news about the death of a youth in police firing.
The TV channel later aired an apology for running the news.
