THERE was a time when journalists in Indian-held Kashmir were the cynosure of Indian media — tenacious, reliable, courageous and resourceful with ear to the ground. Embassies in New Delhi had point persons to pick the brains of many of these intrepid news hounds working in a tricky place, among the world’s most heavily militarised zones. Many of the journalists are now in prison or facing trumped-up cases often with daily dire threats from state agencies. And the embassies have mostly turned their backs on the trauma. The situation has worsened manifold since the annexation of IHK by a parliamentary fiat in August 2019. Though the annexation is being questioned in India’s supreme court, the terror and normalisation of the insidious violence against the media goes mostly underreported.

Still, a recent BBC report ‘Any story could be your last’ described the crackdown on Kashmiri media in some detail. It cites several specific cases to describe a “sinister and systematic campaign to intimidate and silence the press” in IHK. The report has incensed the police, who say that the State Investigation Agency, the elite counter-militancy agency, “reserves the right to initiate further legal action” against the BBC for “misreporting facts in a case which is sub judice”. The BBC says it stands by the report. The specific case relates to the incarceration of Fahad Shah, a Srinagar-based journalist, for publishing a “seditious” article in his online media outlet, The Kashmir Walla. The Srinagar-based digital media house shut down last month after the government took down its website and social media accounts. The BBC report quotes seven journalists and one editor, all anonymously, who told the British media group that they felt “choked and suffocated” due to an atmosphere of “fear and intimidation.” The report on the eve of the G20 summit in India makes it particularly noteworthy, raising hopes that it won’t go as unnoticed as others did before it.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2023