IHK papers publish blank front pages to protest ban on advertisements

SRINAGAR: Several local newspapers in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) on Sunday published blank front pages to protest the “unexplained denial of government advertisements to Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader newspapers.Among the papers that published blank covers are the Kashmir Observer, Kashmir Reader, Kashmir Vision and The Kashmir Monitor, the Kashmir Media Service reported.

The Kashmir Editors’ Guild had earlier urged the Press Council of India and the Editors Guild to exercise their legal, ethical and professional mandate to intervene.

Authorities had stopped advertisements to the two major dailies a day after the February 14 Pulwama attack.

Condemning the ban, the Kashmir Editors’ Guild had said the media in Kashmir is one of the most professional and has retained its neutrality even at the cost of lives.

“It will continue to do so. The professional capacities of Kashmir media have been acknowledged world over. The Press Council of India has also issued a detailed report in 2018, detailing the issues and challenges that the Kashmir media is facing. The guild also wants to reiterate that the attempts at strangulating the media is in continuation of what has happened in last more than three decades,” it said.