The centre told the Lok Sabha that there is no registered body by the name of ‘Kashmir Press Club’ and the government does not subscribe to the view that there is a lack of press freedom in the country.
“Presently, there is no registered body by the name of ‘Kashmir Press Club’ or its elected managing body since Kashmir Press Club, as a registered body, has ceased to exist and has failed to register itself under the Societies Registration Act, 1860,” Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha.
The Estates Department took over the government press club building in January in the presence of the executive magistrate of Srinagar, the ministry said.
Responding to India’s decreasing rank on World Press Freedom Index, the ministry said, “This is published by a foreign non-government organization- Reporters Without Borders. The government does not subscribe to its views and country rankings and does not agree to the conclusions drawn by this organization for various reasons including very low sample size, little or no weightage to fundamentals of democracy, adoption of a methodology that is questionable and non-transparent, lack of clear definition of press freedom.”