Chapter 9: Media in the Kashmir Valley

One of the popular Urdu dailies published from Srinagar, the Aftab, decided to close down on September 10, 1993, following a directive from Jamait-Ul- Mujahideen, a pro-Pakistan outfit, asking the editor of the paper to appear before it within one week.

Earlier, on August 31, 1993 the house of the founder editor of the paper, Sanaullah Butt, was gutted. The surmise is that the fire which destroyed the one-storeyed house of the editor in Soura was the handiwork of the militant group which had summoned him.

During recent times, other papers have come under militant attack, the common allegation being that they have been writing "anti-movement" reports. The problem is that different groups perceive "anti-movement" in different ways. For instance, there was a spate of incidents after one group, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, was credited with having issued a statement substituting "self rule" for "independence" as the goal of the movement in the Valley.

When the report was published, the chief of Mahaz-e-Islami, Inayatullah Andrabi, issued a statement condemning it in strong terms. The statement was published in the Srinagar Times which earned the wrath of the Jammu and Kashmir Students Liberation Front which imposed a ban on the paper; the Srinagar Times suspended publication forthwith (August 28 1993). The coordination committee of working journalists met in Srinagar and decided not to publish controversial statements issued by rival militant organizations. Following the decision the Urdu daily Al Safa did not publish the statement sent to it by Andrabi. The result was that the office of Al Safa was attacked on August 30. The militants ransacked the press and broke the furniture the television and telephone.

Earlier in August the militant organizations had also banned Greater Kashmir the only English daily published from the Valley for writing an "anti- movement" report. The paper resumed publication after 12 days. The Srinagar Times resumed publication on September 11, 1993.

One or the early victims in the print media was the editor of the Urdu daily Al Safa. A highly respected person the editor Mohammed Shaban Vakil, was shot dead in his office on April 23, 1991. A powerful explosion damaged the printing press of the daily Aftab on November 4, 1990. The other victim of militant anger was Srinagar Times edited by Sofi Ghulam Mohammed. An explosion took place at the Dal Gate residence of the editor on October 2, 1990.

Al safa voiced the problems faced by the media in Srinagar when it said: "During the last four years militancy has affected all shades of public life in the Valley. The Press had also to see ups and downs during these years. At times journalists had to hear unbecoming treatment at the hands of the government and at times militant outfits burnt copies of newspapers broke the furniture and humiliated journalists... Local newspapers and correspondents have had to suffer more at the hands of those other than the government. Publication of newspapers has been banned at will and their copies burnt by militants... statements about clashes between different militant outfits have been a source of great anxiety for local journalists. If the length of the statement of one organization exceeded that of the other outfit the paper had to hear the onslaught. The profession of journalism has been tied in chains and anybody who tries to break the chains could be sentenced to death."

ASSASSINATIONS

The targets of attack are not only newspapers in Srinagar but also other media. The newsrooms of All India Radio and Doordarshan are under constant threat. The casual newsreaders of the electronic media have been asked to dissociate themselves from voicing the programs and reading the bulletins. An assistant news editor of All India Radio in Srinagar was beaten up by militants and the assistant news editor of the Television station was abducted and released a week later after a thorough drubbing The news staff have still not forgotten that the director of Doordarshan (Television) in Srinagar, Lassa Koul, was killed by the militants in February 1990. This was followed by the killing of an assistant director of the State Information Department (SID), P. N. Handoo, and the SID joint director, Syed Ghulam Nabi.

Several corespondents representing national newspapers left Srinagar in early 1990. Some of the correspondents are now operating from Jammu and some have returned to their headquarters with their papers deciding not to post a permanent correspondent in the militant dictated atmosphere in Kashmir. Following the murder of Lassa Koul the news rooms of All India Radio and Doordarshan were shifted to New Delhi and Jammu respectively in 1990; the newsrooms shifted back to Srinagar only in 1993.

Newspapers published from Jammu and elsewhere and correspondents posted in the State have also suffered at the hands of the militants at one time or another. For a time the entry into the Valley of the Jammu-based papers Excelsior and Kashmir Times was banned by the Hizbul Mujahideen. Sunday the weekly published from Calcutta was the target of militant ire for sometime and one of its correspondents was banned from entering the Valley. So was the correspondent of the Indian Express. For a while the Wahadat-e-Islami prohibited the entry of the BBC bureau chief in India, Mark Tully, into the Valley.

DOCTORED REPORTS

Hizbul Mujahideen one of the militant outfits has directed that statements of Kashmiri leaders like Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Rasool Kar should not be published. The militants have also directed the Press that no suggestion should be made in the media that the Kashmir issue could be settled through negotiations. When newspapers sought to disregard the code explanations were called for and bans were imposed.

The language Press in the Valley is the focus of attention of the militants. Facing the gun, it has little choice except to publish distorted and exaggerated stories. Stringers controlled by the militants put out colorful and doctored reports which are a travesty of the truth. The people in the Valley who would rather believe what is printed in the local Press rather than the news put out by All India Radio and Doordarshan get worked up by the provocative militant- inspired writings and often come out in the streets to stage protest demonstrations. The foreign media which often has a problem understanding the nuances and background then project the demonstrations as a reflection of the spontaneous support of the people for the militants and secession. This is the chain reaction sought to be achieved. The diabolical hand of Pakistan is behind this orchestrated campaign against India. Disinformation, false reports and rumors are floated by militants and these are forced on the local media. This is for instance what happened in 1991 when charges of excesses, atrocities, torture, arson, rape and loot were hurled against the Army which had been called out to aid civil power in Kashmir in Kunan - Poshpora.

The Army not wanting its honor and dignity sullied, complained to the Press Council of India and asked for an independent, impartial enquiry. The Press Council appointed a committee which went to Kashmir, visited the various sites of action and interviewed a large number of people - villagers, men and women, police and medical officers, judicial and administrative officers, journalists and Army personnel of all ranks. After its investigation the committee produced an extensive well-documented report in June 1991.

The conclusion of the committee was that the assumption that the security forces had been given a free hand to "wreak vengeance on a rebellious and anti- national population is totally unsubstantiated". The committee concluded that "all things considered" the Indian Army had "emerged with honor". The committee investigated a number of media stories presenting "human right excesses against the Indian Army in Kashmir" and found them "grossly exaggerated and invented". Thus the committee remarked that human rights activists and organizations "must continue their watchdog role in Kashmir but they need to be more cautious about publicizing their findings". The committee warned that for some militant groups in Kashmir "it is a jehad with martyrdom awaiting those who lose their lives. And they have two weapons .... guns and words. With the gun they threaten the physical existence of the opponents while their propaganda is aimed at the minds of men".

PRESS EXASPERATED

Some newspapers have had the courage on occasion to write boldly. The Urdu daily Al Safa of Srinagar, commenting on the destruction of schools, colleges and professional teaching institutions by the pro-Pakistan militant organizations, questioned (in the December 11 1990 issue) whether the government of Pakistan would reconstruct the schools, offices, bridges, hospitals and other national assets which had been destroyed by their agents? Also quoting the Pakistani Press the paper said that thousands of villages in Pakistan were without electricity and in the interior of the Sindh province roads barely existed.

An indication of the exasperation of the Press in Srinagar is provided by the statement issued by the Kashmir Editors Conference on November 14, 1992, which said that the members of the Conference unanimously decided not to entertain "uncalled for and purposeless" bans imposed by militant organizations on the publication of newspapers in the Kashmir Valley. The decision to defy the ban was taken at an extraordinary meeting of the Conference following the reported ban on the daily, Aftab, imposed by one of the militant organizations. The Conference decided that if a ban is imposed on any newspaper it will be considered a ban on the publication of all newspapers associated with the Conference.

The Press Council of India appointed a Committee in December 1993 to examine the threats faced by the media. After visiting the Valley and holding extensive discussions with the media persons and officials, the Committee concluded that there was an overwhelming fear of the militants over all sections of society. The press and the electronic media are under constant threat of bans arson violence abductions of employees and their families bomb attacks and killings. The Committee recommended better security arrangements and action against erring newspapers.

It is true that the Press has to guard its freedom zealously and should brook no interference from the government in a democracy. A subservient Press will sound the death-knell of democracy. But in a situation as it prevails in the Valley when the militant organizations are forcing newspapers to toe their line at the point of a gun where is the freedom of the Press and who is to guarantee it?