The key findings from this report are:

• Surveillance, informal ‘investigations’ and harassment of journalists who publish reports considered adverse to the government or security forces

• Blockade of verifiable information from the ground

• Restrictions on mobility in select areas including hospitals

• Controls on facilities available for print publication

• Three journalists reporting for international and credible national media who have been allotted government quarters, received verbal directions to vacate

• Restrictions despite no official curfew, no official notification for the shutdown

• Landlines are working only in certain areas but not in the press enclave, which houses most of the newspaper offices

• The inability to respond to playbacks and queries from editors on email and phone, especially regarding fact-checks, has meant that stories cannot be carried in the national media

• A clear ‘unofficial’ directive regarding what is permissible content.

• Absence of the editorial voice in major newspapers in Kashmir; instead, editorials on ‘soft’ subjects such as vitamin consumption

• Lack of safety for women journalists

• The throttling of independent media, endangering both media freedom as well as impacting employment of working journalists. 

• Government control of the narrative of normalcy and proclamations over the creation of a ‘Naya Kashmir’

• Silencing and invisibilization of the voices from Kashmir expressing anger over perceived breach of trust, alienation and disillusionment.