Media rights body urges India to respect press freedom in IHK

ISLAMABAD: Media rights organisation Freedom Network has joined global voices to call on the Indian government to respect press freedom in New Delhi-Held Kashmir where phone, broadband and mobile internet services are shut down since special status of the region was revoked on August 5, 2019.

“A total media blackout in Kashmir is tantamount to denial of eight million people’s fundamental rights to know and access information. This situation is totally unacceptable and the Indian government must restore all the necessary services to access information immediately,” Islamabad-based Freedom Network, Pakistan’s first press freedom organisation, said Thursday in a press release.

“The Kashmiri people must exercise fundamental rights having unhindered access to information and any administrative decision to disrupt this access is a criminal act,” the press freedom organisation said.

Freedom Network also extended full support to journalists in Indian-held Kashmir urging the international community to keep supporting press freedom in the region, which is a flashpoint between nuclear-powered neighbours India and Pakistan.

Global media rights groups such Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists have expressed concerns at the situation in Indian-held Kashmir demanding immediate steps to restore communications.