The Editors Guild of India has condemned the arrest of Fahad Shah, the editor of the Kashmir Walla, on Friday.
As per a press statement issued by the Editors Guild of India, Shah had been questioned four days earlier for his reporting on a deadly police raid in Pulwama in late January that left four people dead. He has been summoned and detained multiple times for his writing over the past few years.
This arrest is part of a larger trend in Kashmir of security forces calling journalists for questioning and often detaining them, because of their critical reporting of the establishment. In a separate incident, journalist Gowhar Geelani has also been summoned by the executive magistrate of Shopian district to appear in court on February 7 for “acting in a manner prejudicial to the public interest”.
Last month, Sajad Gul, another journalist of Kashmir Walla, was also arrested because of his social media posts that were considered objectionable by the authorities, EGI said.
The space for media freedom has progressively eroded in Kashmir. Last month, security forces abetted some journalists in a coup of the Kashmir Press Club management, and then later on state authorities shut down the club completely, reverting the land back to the Estates department.
The Guild urges the state administration to respect democratic values and stop the harassment of journalists in the name of national security. The Guild also demands immediate release of Fahad Shah as well as Sajad Gul, and to ensure that FIRs under harsh penal laws, intimidatory questioning, and wrongful detainment are not used as tools for suppressing journalists’ rights.