Assault on independent media

Since its emergence as a force to reckon with in Kashmir about three decades ago, the independent media has had to tread the thin line between survival and compromise, autonomy and financial viability.

In early 2019, the J&K Government tactically mounted pressure on local newspapers by eroding their financial viability. Two English dailies Greater Kashmir and the Kashmir Reader and an Urdu daily Kashmir Uzma were stripped of government advertisements. Since Kashmir is bereft of corporates and major private advertisers, revenue generated from government advertisements forms a major component for sustaining papers. While the ban on advertisements to Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Uzma was lifted after August, the Kashmir Reader continues to be banned from getting government advertisements.

The pressure on media was intensified when the owners and a publisher of prominent publications (Fayaz Kaloo of English daily Greater Kashmir and the Urdu Kashmir Uzma, Haji Mohammad Hayat Bhat of Kashmir Reader and Rashid Makdoomi of Greater Kashmir) were summoned by India’s counter-terror National Investigation Agency for questioning to its headquarters in New Delhi in July for a week. This was preceded by the arrest on June 24, of a 62-year-old editor of Urdu daily Afaaq, Ghulam Jeelani Qadri. He was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in a midnight raid from his home after returning from the office located in Srinagar’s Press Enclave, which houses offices of majority of newspapers. Qadri, a prominent editor, was falsely shown as absconding in a 28-year-old case registered under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. He was granted bail by the court. Likewise, pending cases against editors and owners of publications were excavated post August apparently aimed at sustaining pressure on media. Another editor was surprised when he was told about an old case prompting him to immediately approach a court for bail.

The cumulative effect of these coercive acts in addition to the complete communications ban on August 5 completely throttled an enabling atmosphere for media to operate. Its fallout is reflected in over 100 newspapers published from Srinagar without any variety of news and ground reporting.

“This appears to be a deliberate attempt to muzzle the press in Kashmir. Else, why would they ban the internet, which is our lifeline for newsgathering, research, background or reaching out to sources on messaging applications?”  

Ishfaq Tantry, General Secretary, Kashmir Press Club.

The hidden stories

The severe humanitarian crisis emerging out of the communications ban and restriction on public movement, the enormous economic losses, lack of access to medical care and schooling, as well as reports of torture, found little or almost no space in local media. While local media could not tell the biggest story of their careers, journalists working for selected Indian electronic, print and online media, as well as international media reported these issues. Foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the region unless they have permission from the Indian government.

In a letter to the Indian envoy to the United States, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, dated October 24, 2019, US Congressmen raised the issue of allowing free access to both journalists and members of Congress in a letter: “We encourage India to open Jammu and Kashmir to both domestic and foreign journalists, and other international visitors, in the interest of open media and increased communication.”

Faced with criticism, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar defended denying permission for international journalists to enter Kashmir as their presence could provoke unrest. “I can’t commit to a deadline, but as soon as it is safe, they can go. We don’t want their presence to provoke problems – from people who would take advantage of it to show that there is unrest,” he told Le Monde.

Editions were truncated from 20 pages to 4 pages with prominent newspapers refraining from publishing editorials and opinion pieces. Op-ed pages were filled with health bulletins on diabetes, cholesterol etc. The local publications were completely at the beck and call of the government. Of those newspapers that were not blacklisted for receiving advertisements, entire front pages were splashed with government advertisements pronouncing ‘benefits of abrogating Article 370’. At places, these front pages were stuck on walls to ‘create awareness among people’, who were deeply mourning the loss of the special status.

“Media institutions were quite vibrant in Kashmir until the abrogation of August 5. But since then, they have been throttled. We may have to work collectively and it may take some time to fill the gap. Newspapers in Srinagar were published without edit pages, comment sections were missing and papers were reduced to mockery. The reports published were sketchy, briefly giving a one-sided story. There was a sense of fear as media persons had to operate from media centre. That was a major concern for us as we couldn’t reduce Kashmir Times to a pamphlet.”  

Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor, Kashmir Times.

Unkind byte: Impact on digital media

Fledgling news websites functioning out of Kashmir were forced to completely suspend their operations as the region reeled under an Internet blackout with no end date. This led to a loss of revenue and drastically dipped their online rankings. Many journalists, especially those working in digital portals of their newspapers lost their jobs and their salaries reduced by local publications. To cite an example, Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir and Kashmir Reader were among the prominent local papers which laid off staff and also reduced salaries of journalists working amid this frustrating situation. Salary cuts ranging from 20 to 40 per cent were arbitrarily made across the board.

The Kashmir Walla, freepresskashmir, thekashmirpress suspended their operations for months together as the region reeled under Internet shutdown.  While The Kashmir Walla, which has both a print as well online presence, missed publishing two weekly print editions in August and resumed publication in third week of August, the rest have not resumed operations till date.

Wasim Khalid, editor of thekashmirpress, which was launched in May 2018, says that he will start resuming his news website in the coming days as broadband and low speed mobile Internet has resumed. He rued that the last seven months shattered his business plans and delayed pending payments.

“When people can’t access and read it, why run the website? How would we have updated websites? I would have had to travel 10 km to reach the media centre and update website,” he said. After seven months, when the broadband Internet and social media ban was lifted on March 4, he could not even remember the passwords of his social media handles to get them reactivated.

His counterpart, Fahad Shah, editor of The Kashmir Walla has a team of 14 people including a graphic designer, marketing staff and administration. The publication started a weekly edition (print) in June 2019 and though they missed two editions in August, publication resumed in the third week of August and the website resumed after mobile Internet 2G services were restored on January 25.

“If we look at losses incurred in these months, we lost almost Rs 20 lakh for advertisements alone. We did not lay off staff members. We resorted to salary cuts decided by the entire team based on consensus. The team was supportive and it was a democratic decision,” says Shah.

Reporting from a zone of silence

Initially, many newspapers could not publish their editions and a few who published had to do a herculean task by watching news channels or listening to radio stations for hours and transcribing the news for the papers next day. Newsgathering was almost impossible as reporters, editors and other staff were unable to reach or contact their offices.

When history was made by removing the semi-autonomous status of J&K, local journalists were left idle. The communications ban and massive military crackdown left them without work. There were no movement or curfew passes for media persons and they had to struggle by navigating and circumventing the streets under the control of armed forces as Kashmir was virtually turned into a garrison. But an army of journalists mainly associated with news channels from outside Kashmir was given free access to every part of the city.

Just outside Srinagar’s Rajbagh police station, I encountered a woman reporter working with an Indian news channel showing “normalcy” by claiming that there were no protests and killings. This was emulated by almost all news channels who played out the government’s normalcy narrative instead of questioning the unprecedented clampdown and crackdown.

When the media facilitation centre was established, it was largely meant to facilitate reporters who had come from outside the Valley. They were moving in and around Srinagar in hired cabs seemingly with the sole purpose of lapping up the government narrative. When a massive rally estimating 10,000 people chanting slogans and carrying anti-abrogation flags and Pakistan flags moved from Soura through the streets of Srinagar in the afternoon of August 9, government forces stopped it on way by firing live ammunition and teargas shells. The Government of India’s home ministry denied the BBC and Reuters reports calling them “fabricated and incorrect” and many social media netizens including journalists in India sided with the government. But the BBC stood by its reportage.

Even when this was happening, many media outlets including state-owned Prasar Bharati news service, Doordarshan News apart from few others were unquestionably bolstering the government narrative by showing people offering Friday prayers and queuing up outside ATMs.  As reported by Indian magazine Caravan, four of the largest circulating English-language dailies—the Times of India, the Hindustan Times, The Hindu and the Indian Express —either did not cover the incident, or drastically played down its importance. “The Hindu, on 10 August, mentioned the incident in a small story headlined, “Friday prayers are peaceful.” Another report, on the front page, at least twice as long, had Kashmiris lining up in queues to make a phone call, in which the reporter saw “tears of both anger and relief.” The Indian Express used a government statement chiding Pakistan as the lead headline of its front page, which also had a story about the struggle of ailing Kashmiris trying to access government hospitals.

Ground reports of local journalists travelled amid the blackout through various innovative means. Journalists would travel to Srinagar airport and plead with flyers to carry the USB drives and would give them numbers of the concerned persons in Delhi. From then onwards, they would not know whether or not their despatches were published. It was a risk. A few, like young reporter Saqib Mugloo travelled 200 km from Srinagar to reach Kargil in Ladakh where broadband Internet was functioning and sent their despatches from there.

Long queues of people waited outside district magistrates and police stations to call their kin and friends outside the Valley. Emotional scenes were on display after mothers would register the numbers with officials on their turn and then be allowed to talk to their kin in India and abroad. This was a dream come true to get a chance to dial a number. And same was the case with journalists who were given access to a single mobile phone at the media facilitation centre. Journalists wishing to make a phone call had to note down their numbers and other personal particulars including name and organisation and wait for their turn. This was a new normal for more than two months until post-paid mobile phones were restored on October 14.

But it could not end the daily suffering of the media community as Internet was not restored. In both summer as well as in freezing sub-zero temperatures, through rain and snow, journalists had to rush towards the centre for doing their work from sending mails to receiving playbacks or queries from their respective organisations.

It resulted in a loss of opportunity as well because many were unable to access mail in time. Like senior journalist Majid Maqbool says, “By the time, I could respond [to queries from my editor], the story had lost its shelf-life. In fact, it was miracle to get access to mail in time and respond to mails,” he said. Many a journalist said they saw playbacks after their stories were published.

Amid this, the most challenging thing was getting the official version. For more than two months, there was no way to contact officials or verify information. Initially, government officials would address pressers and they were mostly monologues.

Life in the ‘sub-jail’

While local journalists were crippled by the clampdown and unable to move, an army of reporters from Indian news channels descended from New Delhi to cover the big story. It seemed as though the government-run media centre was set up mainly to facilitate journalists coming from outside was established at a starred hotel in Srinagar on August 10.

Infamously known among media persons as the ‘sub jail’, the carpeted hall fitted with surveillance cameras became an oasis for hundreds of journalists every day to see each other and access one telephone and slow Internet on four desktop computers. Journalists waited for hours for their turn and at times would remain disappointed due to the long rush and low speed. This harassment and humiliation caused huge distress to entire media fraternity. Three months after, the only change the media community saw was a change in location of media centre from the hotel to the government owned office and additional extension of six more computers apart from wifi connections which was strictly prohibited at the previous place.

While telephone lines and mobile phones were gradually restored, the Internet shutdown is longest ever in a democracy surpassing the previous record 133 mobile Internet shutdowns in Kashmir in 2016.  On October 14, only post-paid mobile phones of 40 lakh subscribers were restored while connections of 25 lakh prepaid mobile users were banned.

Prepaid mobile phone services were restored only on January 18, 2020 allowing journalists to heave a sigh of relief. The government initially ‘whitelisted’ only 153 websites and extended the ban on social media platforms. In the meantime, people were accessing the Internet through Virtual Proxy Networks (VPN) to circumvent the ban, but subsequently, the VPNs too were banned. At many places especially in rural areas, government authorities would check and search mobile phones of people for VPN applications. They were allegations of thrashing if VPN applications were found on phones. To add to the intimidation, the Jammu and Kashmir Police was closely monitoring social media activities and on February 17 filed a case against people under stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), mainly used for militants, for “misuse” of social media users in Kashmir.

On March 4, the government lifted the ban on social media as well as broadband internet.

Legal challenge

Ironically, the Supreme Court of India took five long months to decide on a petition filed on August 10, 2019, by Kashmir Times executive editor Anuradha Bhasin on the Internet ban and restrictions hampering journalists in the Valley. The judgement, however, did not provide any relief to people in Kashmir or to the media as the court did not explicitly order restoration of the Internet. It instead asked the government to review the ban within seven days. Predictably, the government after a review “in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of state and for maintaining public order” continued the prolonged ban.

In an order passed on January 10, 2020, the Supreme Court said that an “order suspending Internet services indefinitely is impermissible under the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Service) Rules, 2017”. Any suspension can be “temporary in duration, must adhere to the principle of proportionality, must not extend beyond necessary duration and is subject to review”. Pointing out that the State must produce the orders by which communication was blocked, the apex court said that a review committee must conduct a periodic review within seven days of the previous review, a time frame missing from the existing Suspension Rules.

As per the Supreme Court order: “freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to practice any profession or carry on any trade, business or occupation over the medium of Internet enjoys constitutional protection under Article 19(1)(a) and Article 19(1)(g). The restriction upon such fundamental rights should be in consonance with the mandate under Article 19 (2) and (6) of the Constitution, inclusive of the test of proportionality.”

Following the Supreme Court order, leased-line Internet to tour and travel agencies, hospitals, banks, government offices was restored, but with restrictions, and no social media access was permitted.

Further, four days after the Supreme Court decision, the J&K government restored limited 2G mobile internet in five districts of Jammu and broadband for essential services such as hospitals, banks and government offices. Initially, the government ‘whitelisted’ only 153 websites for access and gradually extended it to 1400 websites till Internet was restored on March 4. But media organisations and journalists were not included in the priority list for allowing Internet access. Later, they were made to sign an undertaking agreeing to six points: there will be no social networking, proxies, VPNs and wifi from the permitted IP; no encrypted file containing any sort of video/photo will be uploaded; MAC binding in place to restrict Internet access to registered devices through single PC; all USB ports will be disabled on the network; the company will be responsible for any kind of breach and misuse of Internet; the company will provide complete access to all its content and infrastructure as and when requested by the security agencies.