New ‘Kashmir Press Club’ to be Established in Srinagar

September 1, 2024

 

On Aug. 12, 2024, more than two-and-a-half years after the government officially shut down the Kashmir Press Club, following a group of pro-indian journalists’ forcible take-over of it, a self-appointed ‘interim executive body’ of the Kashmir Press Club announced that a new press club will soon be established in Srinagar.

 

 

 

After Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was revoked in Aug. 2019, the indian regime required the Kashmir Press Club (KPC) to re-register under the Central Societies Registration Act. Although the club applied for re-registration in the first week of May 2021, the Registrar of Societies did not issue the re-registration until Dec. 29, 2021, several months later.

Two weeks after this, on January 14, 2022, the re-registration was halted based on a report from the J&K Police’s Criminal Investigation Department. The following day, a group of journalists, in a coup orchestrated by the indian regime, took control of the club’s premises, and declared themselves the “interim body.”

Since then, the KPC no longer remained a registered body and came to a ‘legal’ closure on 14 July 2021.

Despite challenges, the previous KPC played a crucial role in uniting journalists and providing a space for solidarity as press freedoms were increasingly restricted post-August 2019. Unlike other press bodies that became inactive or avoided criticizing the government, the KPC actively addressed issues like internet shutdowns and journalist harassment. It also served as a workspace for young journalists, offering mentorship and fostering collaboration.

 

Many human rights and press freedom organizations spoke out against the club’s closure, noting that it had been a key institution for journalists in the region and they called for its immediate reopening. They remarked that the shutdown was an attempt to silence the reporting coming out of Kashmir.

 

A week ago, a statement was released by the same self-appointed ‘interim body’ whose members- such as M Saleem Pandit of ‘The Times of India’ and Zulfikar Majid of ‘Deccan Herald’– were responsible for barging into the club in 2022 and forcibly taking control of it by holding the office members hostage. The statement said the administration pledged its full support to facilitate the club’s establishment as soon as possible.

 

Different parties raised questions about how ‘democratic’ the election process for the interim body was. However, more importantly, many journalists also had reservations with the people behind the establishment of a new press club. Some of them have said: “The announcement of revival [is] from the same people who enabled its closure and prevented a democratic election of the institution to take place” (Kashmir Times).

 

Some Kashmiris, who prefer to remain anonymous, also shared their opinion on the new club with StandwithKashmir. One person said: “There are fears about

increased surveillance, indexing and being co-opted into the “patronage system” of the state.”

 

Another person commented that the new club is being run by Intelligence Bureau “appointed henchmen” who are not real journalists. They said that the club attempts provide a false sense of freedom. Whereas, in reality, everything is being reported to the authorities by informants.

 

Witnesses recounted that the coup had taken place in the presence of indian armed forces. This reveals that the “journalists” who had orchestrated it were working hand in hand with the indian regime. If a new press club is established under their purview and leadership, it bears little hope for Kashmiri journalists who are looking to use the club as a space to speak truth to power.

 

A journalist who wishes to remain anonymous told us: “There has been so much

suppression of journalists that we are scared to speak or do any work. This press club and all is a drama to project so called normalcy and free media, which doesn’t exist. These are the same people who occupied the press club initially before it was shut down and now they have started another press club… So much has been happening in Kashmir and there is no news of all that. The journalism in Kashmir is non-existent and there is a graveyard of silence. There is only fear.”

 

A press club with puppet leadership will not change the current state of journalism in Kashmir. Kashmiri journalists are routinely harassed, intimidated and booked under ‘anti-terror’ laws like the UAPA, after which they spend years in arbitrary detention.

Since 2019 till 2022, at least 35 journalists in Kashmir have faced “police interrogation, raids, threats, physical assault, or fabricated criminal cases for their reporting” (Human Rights Watch). For example, Sajad Gul remains incarcerated since 2022 for posting a video on Twitter. Irfan Mehraj was called in for questioning and remains incarcerated since. And Aasif Sultan continues to be arrested despite no proof of crimes committed.

 

The new Kashmir Press Club only attempts to act as an institution providing a veneer of credibility to the state of journalism in Kashmir. In reality, it is clear that the indian settler regime has basically criminalized all journalists who are reporting the truth and has forced journalism to serve as stenography for the settler regime.

 

 

 

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Stand With Kashmir (SWK) is a Kashmiri-driven independent, transnational, grassroots movement committed to standing in solidarity with the people of indian-occupied Kashmir in ending the indian occupation of their homeland and supporting the right to self-determination of the pre-partition state of Jammu and Kashmir. We want to hear from you. If you have general inquiries, suggestions, or concerns, please email us at info@standwithkashmir.org.