Independent media in India faces frustrating hurdles in the performance of professional duties in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The government claims all is well in the disputed region. But since its August 5 security clampdown, no regional newspaper has appeared nor the mainstream news agencies been able to gather and report news and opinion. Even journalists accompanying politicians' delegation led by Rahul Gandhi were roughed up at the Srinagar airport. If that was no bad enough, the Press Council of India (PCI), a statutory body whose mandate it is to uphold media freedom and improve standards of journalism, has sought permission from the Supreme Court to intervene in a petition filed by the Executive Editor of Kashmir Times, Anuradha Bhasin, in which she challenged the curbs on media freedom in occupied J&K, requesting the court to remove restrictions on the movement of people and communication links. The PCI has defended its unethical move saying it is "in the interest of integrity and sovereignty of the nation." That sounds like a familiar argument pliant institutions under ultranationalist repressive regimes employ to exploit public sentiments in situations like the present one.
However, as expected, many media persons have reacted angrily to CPI's decision. Voicing a common concern, a former member of the council respected journalist Krishna Prasad told a news website "if the Press Council sees a free and open media as a threat to the nation's 'sovereignty', and it believes readers and viewers can and ought to be kept in the dark in special situations, it is a sad day for Indian democracy, although it would not surprise anybody that things have come to such a pass." Indeed, democracies are better served by confronting difficult situations and finding solutions for them. This one wants to keep a lid on a volatile situation through information control. It has continued to impose lockdown on J&K for the third week running for a simple but compelling reason which is that the on-ground reality is opposite to what it tells the people. They do not know who to believe, the international media reports or the denials by their own government. At some point, curfews and restrictions will have to be lifted, and signs suggest things will explode beyond the security forces control.
The Modi government remains adamant to move on a destructive path. It might also be finding comfort in that Anuradha Bhasin's petition filed on August 10 still awaits adjudication. Try as they may the journalists' demands for the lifting of restrictions on communications and free movement of people are unlikely to be met anytime soon. These are trying times for the independent media in the 'world's largest democracy' which is increasing becoming a despotism.