Hyderabad: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU), the largest and most representative organization of working journalists in the country, expressed serious concern over the continuing lockdown of internet service and limited availability of mobile telephone services in Kashmir for the last hundred days.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) President K Sreenivas Reddy and Secretary-General and Press Council of India (PCI) member Balwinder Singh Jammu said the continued lockdown of internet services seriously impacted the reportage from Kashmir to the news organizations inside Kashmir and in the country. They said most of the newspapers in the valley were either shut down or coming out with reduced pages leading to lay off and retrenchment of journalists and other newspaper employees.
“The continued and complete lockdown of internet and limited availability of mobile telephone service in Kashmir valley even after 100 days is an unreasonable restriction on the freedom of the press and freedom of expression. It is a violation of the fundamental right guaranteed in the constitution. It is unfortunate that the union government is continuing the restrictions on the communications network while claiming that the situation in Kashmir is normal”, the IJU leaders said.
Sreenivas Reddy and Balwinder Jammu demanded that the union government should immediately restore all modes of communication including the internet and mobile phones for the news organizations and journalists in Jammu and Kashmir so that the media could perform its mandated duty of ‘informing’ the people of the country on the ground situation there objectively and independently. They also called upon the Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman Justice C K Prasad to take note of the situation and take immediate steps to restore freedom of the press in Jammu and Kashmir.
