Editors Guild of India ask for withdrawal of advisory for reporting in Kashmir
By: Tariq Shah VOV
Srinagar
Reacting to the recent advisory issued by the police to the local journalists reporting from the ground in Kashmir valley that they should not report live law and order problems along with gunfights, the Editors Guild of India has demanded from the authorities that they should withdraw this advisory.
It is in place to mention that IGP Kashmir Range Vijay Kumar in a recent press conference has said that it is for the safety of the journalists that he has issued the advisory as reporting from the live gunfights can endanger their lives and it was purely for the safety of them that it has been advised that they should not such reporting.
According to the statement issued by the EGI said, “Nothing can be further from the truth. Visibly, the police are giving an impression of trying to maintain peace by attempting to control the fallout of violence in a high strung environment, but what is being instead done is an attempt by the security forces to escape from any kind of media scrutiny about the flow of events behind the violence”.
EGI said that live reporting from conflict areas, including gunfight between government forces and militants, is one of the most important journalistic duties of any responsible media, and requires extreme grit and determination on the part of reporters.
Adding, “At best, there may be some guidelines that can be issued with respect to reporting from such scenes, with the aim of protecting the integrity of tactics and plans of security agencies, as well as to avoid journalists from interfering with the evolving situation and from sensationalizing the issue that can stir up emotions at audience’s end. Globally those have been the norms adopted by responsible governments.”
EGI further said, “In this respect, the advisory of Kashmir Police is draconian and undemocratic, and flies in the face of the stellar role journalists have played in reporting conflict in the country. Therefore the advisory must be withdrawn immediately.”
With inputs from KW
