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Kashmiri journalist Akash Hasan headed to New Delhi International Airport in late July to travel to Sri Lanka to cover the country’s economic crisis.
Instead, he was detained for hours and questioned about his personal and professional life. His passport was finally “cancelled without prejudice” meaning he was not allowed to travel abroad that day.
Why did we write this?
Barred from international travel and facing many challenges at home, Kashmiri journalists say the past few years have been a test of their endurance.
It was confusing but not unique. Several other Kashmiri journalists have been banned from traveling abroad since 2019, when the Indian government ceded autonomy to the region and tightened media restrictions.
The authorities said there was no reason for the ban, which made it difficult for the journalists to challenge it in court. Experts say these travel restrictions are yet another way authorities are criminalizing journalism in Kashmir. Journalists are threatened with imprisonment and forced to self-censor.
As the local media landscape shrinks, officials say they are focusing on independent journalists working with foreign journalists. Those who find a way to deal with the harassment say it makes them more determined to report the truth.
“When we choose to be journalists, we know the consequences. These incidents are not surprising,” Mr Hasan said. “It may be difficult for a while, but it won’t stop me.”
Srinagar, India
Akash Hassan was scheduled to fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 27 to report on the country’s economic crisis, but never made it. The Kashmiri journalist had completed all the necessary travel arrangements for a quick trip, but when he reached the immigration counter at the New Delhi International Airport, officials took him into a room and questioned him about his personal and professional life.
After hours of waiting, his passport was “cancelled without prejudice”, meaning he was not allowed to travel abroad that day.
It was a confusing experience, but not unique. A few weeks ago, another Kashmiri journalist, Sanna Irshad Matho, was barred from traveling to Paris to attend a photography exhibition. Other journalists from the region have been barred from traveling abroad since 2019, when the Indian government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomous status and tightened media restrictions.
Why did we write this?
Barred from international travel and facing many challenges at home, Kashmiri journalists say the past few years have been a test of their endurance.
The authorities said there was no reason for the ban, which made it difficult for journalists to challenge the order in court. Experts say these travel restrictions are yet another way authorities are criminalizing journalism in Kashmir. Journalists in Kashmir are frequently called to police stations and questioned about their work, threatened with jail time and pressured into self-censorship.
“After the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status… the authorities have decided that even normal journalism – if it goes against the narrative they want to spread – must stop,” said Kalpana Sharma, a veteran journalist and author who has written widely. Indian media.
She says many local papers have succumbed to government pressure, and authorities are increasingly targeting independent journalists who work with foreign journalists. Those who find a way to deal with the harassment say it makes them more determined to report the truth.
Mr Hasan is not sure why he was barred from traveling to Colombo last month, but suspects it is related to his extensive reporting on human rights abuses and civil liberties in Kashmir.
In the year In 2021, Mr. Hassan wrote about how several newspapers in Kashmir had deleted archived stories critical of the government and that Kashmiri police had harassed critics on social media. Both stories appeared on New York-based news sites.
“When something like this happens, it takes some time to get back on the field,” he said of the canceled Colombo trip and clashes with local police. But in the end he overcomes these feelings of frustration and starts writing again.
“When we choose to be journalists, we know the consequences. These events are not surprising,” he says. “It may be difficult for a while, but it won’t stop me.”
The crime of journalism
In the year India’s ranking in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index has dropped from 142 to 150 out of 180 countries, a drop largely due to crackdowns on journalists in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where authorities have long struggled to control a separatist insurgency.
Kunal Majumdar, representative of the Indian Committee to Protect Journalists, who reported a sharp increase in arrests and detentions of journalists since 2019, said: “There is total transparency in the relationship of the government in Jammu and Kashmir with journalists.” .
He added that the harassment is “part of a larger trend we’re seeing across the country, but it’s even more intense in Kashmir.”
The ongoing exodus has created complex challenges for local newsrooms like Kashmir Walla.
This year, Wala’s office raids and criminal charges against its employees have depleted resources and demanded an unprecedented solution from its leaders. Its founding editor, Fahad Shah, was arrested in February for posting “anti-national content” online, including a story about a deadly police attack that quoted victims’ families. Mr Shah – a regular contributor to the monitor – remains in jail today.
Interim organizer Yashraj Sharma said after Mr Shah’s arrest that “everything fell apart”. Even as the small workers persevere in maintaining the Wala site, the problems continue to pile up.
“We are running out of money. We have simultaneous court hearings. In a day, there are a million things we have to fight for,” says Mr. Sharma.
Still, bowing will be worse now, because the local media is limited in geography and there are few newspapers capable of documenting the day-to-day realities in Kashmir.
“We have been standing on the precipice for a long time now, but despair is a privilege we simply don’t have,” Mr Sharma said.
There is nowhere to turn.
Pressures have prompted some Kashmiri journalists to turn to national or international outlets to get their stories out and build a more sustainable career. But even this strategy can attract government control.
Jammu and Kashmir’s director general of police told The Indian Express this month that authorities have a duty to track down journalists who might spread a “poisonous kind of narrative” while abroad.
India’s Supreme Court has ruled that authorities can only prevent a citizen from flying out of the country if he is on trial or is required to do so by law. But Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, says that many activists and journalists have been stopped arbitrarily by Indian immigration authorities in recent years, including many from Kashmir.
“Courts usually refuse to uphold these orders, but this disturbing practice continues, affecting freedom of movement and livelihoods,” she said.
Srinagar-based journalist and activist Bilal Ahmed Bhat says he has been barred from traveling abroad twice, once at the New Delhi airport when he was heading to Malaysia for a conference in October 2019, and again two years later. Lebanon.
“I wanted to take legal action against the travel ban, but I was told by a police officer that if I went legally, the matter would go on forever,” Mr Bhatt said.
Unlike other journalists, Mr. Bhatt was not told why he was barred from travel.
After the first incident, Mr. Bhatt said he started receiving phone calls from various security agencies asking intrusive questions about his personal and professional life. The test filled him with anxiety, and since then he has struggled with frequent panic attacks and paranoia, making it difficult to focus on work. But he always finds a way.
“I will never give up. Even my family and friends were against the idea of pursuing journalism. If I give up, who will tell the people?
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