NEW YORK
\nThe owner of a sealed newspaper in Indian-occupied Kashmir says Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s repressive media policies are destroying Kashmiri journalism, intimidating media outlets into serving as government mouthpieces and creating an information vacuum in our region of about 13 million people, as India descends into authoritarianism.
\nAnuradha Bhasin, executive editor of The Kashmir Times, whose offices in Srinagar were sealed by the occupation authorities three years ago, in an opinion piece published in The New York Times on Saturday, wrote that Modi was taking steps that could replicate this disturbing model on a national scale.
\n\u201cHis Hindu-chauvinist movement, which has normalized intolerance and violence against Indian Muslims, has already put severe pressure on India\u2019s once-rambunctious press, with journalists surveilled and jailed, and the government using strong-arm tactics against media outlets to ensure favourable coverage,\u201d Ms Bhasin wrote in her piece titled: Modi\u2019s Final Assault on India\u2019s Press Freedom Has Begun.
\nBut in January, she pointed out that draft amendments to digital media guidelines were introduced that would essentially allow the government to block any content it doesn\u2019t like. \u201cIn other words, the rest of India may end up looking a lot like Kashmir,\u201d Ms. Bhasin remarked.
\nIn 2019, Modi\u2019s government abruptly revoked Kashmir\u2019s special status without public input from the territory\u2019s people, sent in thousands of troops and shut down internet access, it was pointed out. The shutdown lasted nearly six months, forcing hundreds of journalists to line up for hours to file their stories via a single designated site that had internet access. Each had 15 minutes to do so. Internet speeds have been excruciatingly slow since.
\nThe next year new rules were introduced that empowered officials to label media content in Kashmir as \u201cfake news, plagiarism and unethical or anti-national\u201d and to punish journalists and publications. \u201cThe rules stated \u2014 ironically \u2014 that the goal was to \u2018promote the highest standard of journalism\u2019.\u201d
\n\u201cJournalists are routinely summoned by the police, interrogated and threatened with charges such as income tax violations or terrorism or separatism,\u201d Ms. Bhasin said, noting that several prominent journalists have been detained or sentenced to jail terms. At least 19 journalists were killed in Kashmir between 1990 and 2018. \u201cWe work under a cloud of fear,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cAn information vacuum hangs over Kashmir, with the public under-informed \u2014 or misinformed \u2014 about what\u2019s going on in the region. Important news is suppressed, downplayed or twisted to suit government ends.\u201d
\nWhen Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a towering Kashmiri figure, died in 2021, the news was either blacked out in Kashmir or mentioned only briefly, according to the article. Last month, the government began a drive to bulldoze thousands of homes that authorities said were illegally built on state land.
\nA leading Kashmir outlet portrayed it as a bold stroke against unnamed \u201cinfluential land-grabbers.\u201d There was no word about the poor Kashmiris suddenly left homeless or residents who claim to have valid documents proving ownership.
\n\u201cAn ignorant public and a government free of scrutiny and accountability are threats to democracy,\u201d Ms. Bhasin wrote. \u201cBut Mr. Modi appears intent on replicating this across India. The proposed amendments to national guidelines for digital media that were unveiled in January are strikingly similar to those imposed on Kashmir, empowering government fact-checkers to label online content as \u2018fake or false.
\n\u2019 Days after those changes were announced, the government ordered online platforms to block links to \u201cIndia: The Modi Question,\u201d a BBC documentary critical of the prime minister. Indian tax agents later raided the British broadcaster\u2019s offices in India. Such raids have been used repeatedly to pressure critical voices in the media.
\n\u201cSince he took power in 2014, Mr. Modi has systematically debased India\u2019s democratic ideals, bending courts and other government machinery to his will,\u201d she wrote.
\n\u201cThe media stands as one of the last remaining institutions capable of preventing India\u2019s descent into authoritarianism. But if Mr. Modi succeeds in introducing the Kashmir model of information control to the rest of the country, it won\u2019t just press freedom that is at risk, but Indian democracy itself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK The owner of a sealed newspaper in Indian-occupied Kashmir says Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s repressive media policies are destroying Kashmiri journalism, intimidating media outlets into serving as government mouthpieces and creating an information vacuum in our region of about 13 million people, as India descends into authoritarianism. Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n