Srinagar
Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) on Tuesday had a marathon meeting in which the members have strongly reacted to the new definition of a journalist that was detailed in the charge sheet of incarcerated Kashmir photo-journalist Kamran Yousuf, said KEG spokesman Shafat Kira.
“If the cops are supposed to define the roles and responsibilities of the journalists, which manage the fourth pillar of democracy, the universities that train thousands of journalists in a year across India must be locked,” the members said. “Re-defining journalism is usually been seen as an effort by totalitarian and dictatorial regimes and not democracies.”
KEG reiterated its stand on Kamran Yousuf case that he has been a news photographer who was freelancing with various media outlets. The editors sought his early release and have continuously insisted that Yousuf requires a fair trial. It has been a long time since Yousuf’s arrest that the investigators have probed almost all angles of his supposed involvement. So far, nothing has been proved as the charge sheet suggests.
“It is high time that Yousuf is permitted to move out of jail and resume his routine and help his mother, the only relation he has, in surviving honorably,” the editors said. “His release will contribute to the strengthening of democracy and right to free speech.”
