By EuAsiaNews,
Brussels : The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Tuesday that it is disturbed by reports of the media being directly targeted in an intensifying security crackdown in the Kashmir region in India.
Newspapers in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, failed to print for two consecutive days on account of severe restrictions on the movement of journalists and other media employees.
Security agencies have compelled local cable news channels to suspend broadcasts or to air only entertainment programs, the world’s largest journalists’ group said in a statement.
Fifteen journalists and media workers were reported injured on August 24 in targeted attacks by personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a paramilitary force controlled by the Indian Union Government and deployed in Srinagar since 2005, it ntoed.
The injured include journalists from India’s two main news agencies, the Press Trust of India and the United News of India, who had been trying to go to their workplaces.
“The IFJ condemns the assaults on the press in Kashmir.The IFJ is gravely concerned that in an environment of complete paralysis for the media, rumour and disinformation will flourish, aggravating an already bad situation,” said the stastement.
The IFJ said its inquiries with journalists in Srinagar reveal that security forces are persistently disregarding media accreditation cards and curfew passes, in some instances snatching and destroying them.
In some instances, armed CRPF personnel were reportedly heard remarking that they had orders to prevent journalists in particular from proceeding to their workplaces.
The IFJ called upon the authorities and the security agencies in Kashmir to “honour the well-established convention that media accreditation cards are considered good for passage through curfew-bound areas.”
The Brussels-based IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 122 countries.