Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that press in Jammu Kashmir enjoys “absolute freedom”.
Manoj Sinha was responding to a French Radio journalist who asked, a question over the report by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) over the intimidation of journalists in Kashmir.
“According to a report by an international organisation, seven journalists in Kashmir were arrested on terror charges and for disrupting social harmony, not for their reporting. The numbers are 10 to 20 times higher anywhere else in the world,” he said.
Sinha insisted there is an independent and active media in Jammu Kashmir. “More than 400 newspapers are published here,” he added.
“CPJ calls on the Indian government to end its brutal crackdown on the media and immediately release the four arbitrarily detained Kashmiri journalists,” CPJ has said in its statement.
The report mentioned the names of Asif Sultan, Fahad Shah, Sajad Gul and Irfan Mehraj and also tweeted a report from November last year when raids of at least seven journalists were raided.