The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has asked the Government of India to drop the investigation charges against Mir Junaid from The Kashmiriyat and Yashraj Sharma who works with independent media website, The Kashmir Walla. The CPJ also asked the administration to drop charges against a Bandipora based reporter- Sajad Gul.
CPJ- the International committee highlighting and fighting for the freedom of the Press globally has said that it tried to contact Amritpal Singh, senior superintendent of police for Shopian district, Colonel K. Arun of the army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information, and Sajad Malik, police deputy superintendent of Hajin, for comment via messaging app, but they did not respond.
The cases filed against The Kashmiriyat and Kashmir walla on 31 January have evoked widespread condemnation from journalistic bodies, prominent Journalists, and Human Rights Activists throughout the globe.
Jammu Kashmir Police in Shopian filed against the two news websites when the Indian Army alleged that a story reported by Mir Junaid for The Kashmiriyat and Yashraj for Kashmir walla was fake, however, editors of both the publications said that they stand with their report and they have ample proof to prove that they have carried out the report with utmost honesty in any court of Law.
A First Information Report (FIR) had been filed against The Kashmiriyat’s Mir Junid and shmir Walla’s Yashraj Sharma and another Kashmir-based news portal Kashmir walla’s Yashraj Sharma.
The Army has alleged that news reports about a school in Shopian being “pressured” by them to hold this year’s Republic Day function is “baseless”.
“Jammu Kashmir Police must drop their investigations into all three journalists and stop targeting journalists because of their reporting,” said Aliya Iftikhar, CPJ’s senior Asia researcher.
The CPJ has been vocal about the harassment of Journalists in the Kashmir valley. In the last four years, CPJ has taken up individual cases of Journalists and has been constantly demanding the release of Srinagar based Journalist- Asif Sultan, who is in jail for more than two years now.