Srinagar without newspapers for fifth day; Mufti wants to meet editors

Srinagar: No newspapers were published from Srinagar on the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday and the publishers and editors are meeting later during the day to take a fresh look at their decision to suspend publications. They had on Tuesday alleged that the PDP-BJP government is not speaking in one voice and not owning up the "press emergency" imposed by it.

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, had desired to see the representatives of Kashmir Editors' Association and Kashmir Press Association, two representative bodies of the Valley-based newspapers, to discuss the issue. But the later declined saying since they were holding a meeting at 1 pm for a review of the situation it would not be proper to meet her before a collective decision on the same is taken by them.  

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The police had on Saturday confiscated the copies of all leading Srinagar newspapers during pre-dawn raids at their press offices in an undeclared information gag which has also shut down the Internet, Cellular phone services and Cable TV network partially. Though no formal gag order was issued, the authorities had privately justified the curbs saying these were unavoidable in order to discourage ‘rumour-mongering’ which, they insisted, was “adding fuel to the fire”. 

State’s education minister and government spokesman, Naeem Akhter, who was approached by media representatives following the raid on newspaper press offices was quoted by them as saying “Better you stay at home for some time.” He also told them that in view of apprehension of serious trouble and attempts likely to be made to subvert peace, strict curfew will be enforced during next few days, and that in such a situation movement of newspaper staff and distribution of newspapers will not be possible.

But apparently caught on the back foot as the arbitrary decision to gag the media evoked widespread criticism across the country and also by media watchdog organisations abroad, Chief Minister’s advisor Amitabh Mattoo stated in Srinagar on Monday evening that there is no ban as such on publication of newspapers in the Valley. He also said the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was not aware of any media gag from the government. He met owners and editors of newspapers to admit it was a “mistake” on part of the administration and "apologised" for it. This came hours after Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in Delhi that Chief Minister Mufti had told him there was no ban on publication of newspapers in the Valley.

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The owners and editors of Kashmir newspapers who discussed the “press emergency” issue at a meeting held in Srinagar on Tuesday said that even after Mattoo admitting that gaffe has been committed by the government, it has resorted to “propaganda blitzkrieg” by insisting that there was no ban. “They used all the available media to hit the credibility of the newspapers, which has a history of not ceasing its publication even when it members were killed,” a statement issued by them said.

It said, “The editors took this issue very seriously. They told Mattoo that the government must own the ban and issue a statement guaranteeing that media operations are not being hampered from the movement of staff, for news gathering, printing and the distribution of the newspapers.”

The statement added, “We have not heard anything from anybody in the government since then. It indicates that the government has not changed its press emergency and announced that in the wake of these developments, the editors and the owners of the Valley newspapers “regret that it may not be possible for us to resume publication of newspapers. We will review the progress on Wednesday”.

Meanwhile, the J&K government in a statement issued in Srinagar late Tuesday evening said that it wants to make it clear that there are no restrictions on printing and publishing of newspapers. It said that in notifications issued earlier during the day the district magistrates of Srinagar and Budgam have “clarified that there is no restriction on printing and publishing of newspapers” in the twin districts where most of the newspapers are published from or their press offices are located.