J&K Police Threatens Legal Action Against BBC Over Report on Press Freedom
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir police has threated to initiate legal action against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) over a recent report done by it on the plight of media persons in the Union Territory.
It has accused the international media house of "misreporting facts" in a case-the detention of The Kashmir Walla founding editor Fahad Shah- which is "subjudice".
The J&K police said in a statement issued here on Saturday that it
strongly objects to the article titled 'Any story could be your last - India’s crackdown on Kashmir Press' written Yogita Limaye and published by the BBC on September 1, 2023. "The article unfairly castigates efforts of J&K police in maintaining law and order and security in J&K as biased against journalists," the statement said.
It added, "J&K police maintains the highest standards of professionalism and functions squarely within the ambit of the law. It is pertinent to mention that one of the cases mentioned in the article - that of Fahad Shah -is one where a trial is already on going against the accused and the court has already framed charges against him under the UAPA for providing terror sympathisers a platform for advocating terrorism through publishing inflammatory and secessionist articles on its online magazine The Kashmir Walla"
The police statement further states, " While the actions of J&K police have stood the test of law and judiciary and changed the security environment in the Union Territory immensely, the article of the author Ms Limaye follows an unabashedly biased line referring to UT of Jammu and Kashmir as Indian Occupied Kashmir, placing quotes of unidentified journalists in her article to bolster her non-existent claims of state overreach against journalists and mentioning instances without particulars of date and place."
"J&K police condemns the attempt of a media house such as the BBC to misrepresent the conditions in J&K in which the J&K police has stood firmly on the front lines in the war against terror and lost thousands of its bravest men in an attempt to safeguard the people of J&K," the statement reads.
It futher says, "SIA (State Investigation Agency) which is the investigating agency in the Fahad Shah case reserves the right to initiate further legal action against the media house for misreporting facts in a case which is sub judice."
BBC had not reacted to the J&K police's statement till the filing of this report.
