Nobody in Kashmir knows why the police seized all the newspapers on Friday morning and beat hawkers, leaving the valley without newspapers once again. In the partially empty hall of the state legislature, the chief minister said he knew nothing about it and was not supportive of such measures.
This is not an isolated incident. Some journalists, on their way to offices or to cover the legislature session were stopped, harassed and beaten. Kashmir’s senior most photojournalist Meraj-ud-Din received a serious neck injury. CNN IBN correspondent Mufti Islah was also beaten up.
Every time, there is crisis in the state, the media ends up at the receiving end of the state’s might. Newspapers remained closed for many days in the last three months and for a long time their circulation was limited to the Srinagar city.
Off late, there is a serious effort to control communications. It started with the ban on pre-paid mobile services apparently on security concern. Then SMS service was banned, again on security consideration. All of a sudden the attention shifted towards the mass media. Initially the government started disciplining the cable news channels. After it failed to get the desired results, it simply banned them ‘till further orders’.
Then it was the turn of newspapers. Initially the government stopped issuing curfew passes to journalists, by default forcing closure of newspapers. Then they stopped honouring curfew passes. Later when under pressure it permitted the publications it started seizing the newspapers on city peripheries. And now, they lead the newspaper trucks directly to the police stations. The cyber world has felt the heat too. Tens of thousands of people, mostly youth, caged under curfew, created communities on the web, discussing life and issues in Kashmir. The government started scanning them as well. There has been one arrest, a teenager, who was later set free. Many others were summoned and warned.
The governments, both in Srinagar and Delhi, seem to ignore the fact that mass media has hardly ever turned the tide in Kashmir where word of mouth is much more powerful, more so when media is blacked out . During 1996 assembly elections the vernacular media was closed for over a month but that did not alter the realities. The security forces had to literally drag voters to the booths that eventually fetched National Conference two-thirds majority, something that it had not even dreamed of even in its heydays.
Newspapers are mirrors. They have a small mandate of reporting the happenings. The Srinagar media is doing it objectively despite grave risks. The fraternity has lost over a dozen of its members in last 20 years but it never compromised with its mandate. It will continue to do so in future as well. The only other option is to ban them.
