Media watchdogs demand restoration of ‘Kashmir Walla’ news website

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) – Various media watchdogs have condemned the move by Indian authorities to restrict access to the website and social media accounts of independent news outlet The Kashmir Walla.

The International Federation of Journalists issued a statement saying that there is an overstepping of power to exert censorship on critical voices in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.

“We demand the Indian government to immediately revoke the orders to block and censor The Kashmir Walla and respect press freedom which is clearly enshrined in its national Constitution,” it said.

New low for press freedom

Beh Lih Yi, Committee to Protect Journalists’ Asia program coordinator, said that the Indian government’s arbitrary ban on The Kashmir Walla’s website and social media accounts marks a new low for the press freedom in the region.

“If the Indian government aims to be taken seriously as a democracy, it must promptly reinstate The Kashmir Walla’s website and accounts, and put an end to the persecution, harassment, and arrest of journalists in Kashmir,” the coordinator said.

Fahad Shah, the founder editor of The Kashmir Walla, has been incarcerated since February 2022 on allegations of “seditious” charges under the anti-terror law and the Public Safety Act. Several other Kashmiri journalists have also been jailed under the same laws.

Committee to Protect Journalists said that the recent developments indicate further suppression of journalistic freedoms in the union territory since it was moved to direct governance by New Delhi in 2019.

Digipub News India Foundation, a digital platform that represents online media in India, said the move reflects a “pattern of arbitrary misuse of the law.”

Digipub said the past four years “had a chilling effect on journalists, journalism, and the fundamental right to free speech”.

“In this environment where they can no longer rely on individual liberties and freedoms guaranteed in the constitution, reporters have left the field,” the media body said.

The Kashmir Wala said it was not aware of the “specifics” of why it has been blocked in India.

“We have not been served any notice nor is there any official order regarding these actions that is in the public domain so far,” it said.

The staff said the blockage was a case of “gut-wrenching censorship.”

Jammu and Kashmir’s former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on X, “one of the few portals that dared to speak truth to power” had been silenced.