For the third consecutive day, no newspapers in Kashmir are printing as the media gag is in force in the wake of hanging of Azfal Guru. News channels are jammed and the internet services are withdrawn.
"We were informed by the police that they will not be permitting printing of the newspapers so do not make any effort," Tahir Ahmad of the Kashmir Times said. "They even sent a party to our printing press just to ensure that there is no activity."
No curfew passes were issued to media, so far. "We did approach the government and they said since newspapers are not printing what is fun of issuing a pass," one journalist, who managed to reach the press colony said. Reports move around either during wee hours or late in the night when there are no or negligible deployments.
Police said the security grid is unnecessarily being blamed for the media gag. It is actually a government order issued by the district magistrate Srinagar on February 9, 2013. "In view of apprehensions of the breach of peace and to stop the incitement of the violence, the broadcast/telecast of the news from local radio / FM / cable channels operating in District Srinagar is hereby suspended temporarily, till further orders," the three lines 'Order' said. The order has clear hand written marking to the police for strict compliance.
The order, however, does not mention newspapers; they have been closed down, literally. While all the channels are working normally, the newspapers are paralyzed. "Police talks us on day to day basis that they will not permit us to print," Abdul Rashid Mukhdoomi, the printer and publisher of Greater Kashmir said. "They even go to printing presses on daily basis." He said he is unaware of any order and has not been served so far. "The tragic part is that we do not know when they will permit us to go to the print," he said.
All the major newspapers are now using their on line editions to give news. But it serves no purpose because internet services have been withdrawn by all the providers including BSNL. The BSNL broadband is available in select areas of Srinagar especially the Press Colony.
Even though the news channels are operating, not many people are able to watch news. Cable operators have been asked not to beam the news channels. Only those people have access to news channels who have installed private dishes.
But information blockade is not being used by the incumbent government for the first time. Every time, there is a bit of crisis, media is the first casualty. It has been happening repeatedly since 2009.
Admitting that there is no official order that stops newspapers from printing, a senior official said that in law and order situation it is the police that takes over. He refused to be identified.
Meanwhile, the clamp down on media in Kashmir, following the hanging of Afzal Guru has drawn widespread condemnation from a number of quarters.
The People's Union for Democratic Rights issued this press release:
Throttling freedom in Kashmir after hanging Afzal
PUDR strongly condemns the imposition of curfew accompanied by blanket gag on all media, including television, print and online, in the Kashmir valley following the secretive hanging of Afzal Guru.
Since Saturday morning Kashmir valley has been placed under a preemptive curfew forcing people to stay locked inside their houses. Satellite and cable tv, internet and even mobile sms have been blacked out in the valley. On Saturday night, the police also stopped the publication and distribution of all newspapers. The authorities did not allow copy to reach the press. Police teams visited various printing presses of daily newspapers and asked the management to stop publishing. The dailies that managed to slip through this net and publish their editions had all the copies seized. With the internet services withdrawn, online editions too couldn"™t get updated on time.
So far, three people have been killed and more than fifty injured in the Valley due to police action on popular protests.
This is all being done to silence the protests against the cold-blooded judicial killing of Guru and to keep the people in the dark about dissenting voices and popular opinion in Kashmir. Evidently, putting the entire population of the Valley under house-arrest and this blatant violation of the right to free speech, expression and assembly doesn"™t prick the conscience of the self-styled keepers of the "˜collective conscience"™ of the country.
One is also struck by the double standards of the J&K state government. On the one hand chief minister Omar Abdullah is speaking out against the hanging of Afzal Guru, on the other hand his administration is systematically blacking out information and curbing the basic and inalienable democratic rights of the Kashmiri people.
Gagging of the media is nothing new in Kashmir, and by and large it goes unreported in Indian media. In fact, India"™s media watchdogs have acquired notoriety in consistently acquiescing in the throttling of freedom of expression and assembly through their silence, where Kashmir is concerned. PUDR sincerely hopes that the Indian mainstream media and its apex bodies like the Press Council of India, Editors Guild and the Indian Broadcasters Association will discover courage to speak out against this outrageous attack on the freedom of the press and the systematic throttling of democratic rights of the people of Kashmir.