The editors Guild of India has issued a statement asking the Jammu Kashmir police to withdraw the advisory forbidding journalists from reporting live encounters.
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In its statement, the Editors Guild of India has said that, Visibly, the police are giving an impression of trying to maintain peace by attempting to control the fallout of violence in a high strung environment, but what is being instead done is an attempt by the security forces to escape from any kind of media scrutiny about the flow of events behind the violence.
The statement further read, “Live reporting from conflict areas, including encounters between security forces and militants, is one of the most important journalistic duties of any responsible media, and requires extreme grit and determination on the part of reporters.”
Pertinently immediately after the issuance of the order, as reported by The Kashmiriyat several journalists were barred from covering encounters on 09 April in Shopian and Anantnag districts of South Kashmir,
At best, there may be some guidelines that can be issued with respect to reporting from such scenes, with the aim of protecting the integrity of tactics and plans of security agencies, as well as to avoid journalists from interfering with the evolving situation and from sensationalizing the issue that can stir up emotions at audience’s end. Globally those have been the norms adopted by responsible governments, the editors guild of India said.
“In this respect, the advisory of Kashmir Police is draconian and undemocratic, and flies in the face of the stellar role journalists have played in reporting conflict in the country, the editors guild said while calling for the immediate withdrawal of the Police directive.