The Editors Guild of India has issued a statement expressing shock at editors of Kashmir-based publications being questioned and detained for their reportage or editorials.
The statement said that this was the third time that Fahad Shah Editor-in-Chief of The Kashmir Walla a Srinagar based digital news magazine was detained for his writings.
“His is not the only case. There are scores of journalists who are experiencing this new normal where they can be hauled up by security forces for writing anything that goes contrary to the government narrative of peace returning to the Valley,” the statement said.
“The EGI demands that the Jammu and Kashmir administration create circumstances where the media can report and express opinions without any fear or favor,” the EGI statement said.
Last week Digipub News India Foundation issued a statement condemning the detention of Fahad Shah in connection with his reports on an attack on two photojournalists in Srinagar. In its statement, Digipub said that Shah’s detention was “without basis, reflecting the fraught conditions under which the media operate in Kashmir”. It also noted that it “follows a pattern of intimidation against him in particular and other journalists in general for doing no more than their job”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ Asia had also flagged Shah’s detention and demanded his immediate release.
Shah had been previously detained by security forces in 2017, and in 2020.