This article by Reporters Without Borders analyses the implications of India’s “New Media Policy” in Indian-Administered Kashmir and calls for the immediate withdrawal of the policy. The policy legalizes the right to harass journalists and media judicially and economically for publishing content the state doesn’t like and legalizes censorship. It allows the Department of Information and Public Relations the de facto right to exercise pre- and post-publication control over all journalism in Indian-Administered Kashmir.
Topics: media censorship, infinite interpretative leeway of the policy, harassment of journalists
Terms: Jammu and Kashmir’s Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), censorship of media, denial of right to free speech, denial of right to free press, government censorship, intimidation of journalists, harrassment of journalists, self-censorship, prior censorship
According to the policy, any reporter who is “de-empaneled” will be denied official accreditation and, as a result, any rights normally accorded to journalists. And for media outlets, “de-empanelment” will mean the loss of almost all advertising income since state advertising is in practice controlled by the DIPR in Jammu and Kashmir.
“As there is no definition of what constitutes fake news or anti-national content, the government has absolutely infinite interpretative leeway to censor any journalism it does not like and to impose its own narrative,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.
“By means of this totally Orwellian regulation, the Jammu and Kashmir administration becomes plaintiff against the free press, judge and executioner all in one. We therefore call for the withdrawal of this directive, which is unworthy of India’s democracy and will have the
immediate effect of inducing a profound self-censorship that in practice amounts to prior censorship.”
India is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries and territories in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index (https://rsf.org/en/ranking), two places lower than in 2019. The fall is due in part to the crackdown on press freedom in Kashmir since last summer.
June 2020
Originally published
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