On Monday, the J&K government took control of the club’s building after a group of journalists accompanied by armed forces members took over the establishment.
The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday expressed anguish at the shutting down of Kashmir Press Club and said that the move has set a dangerous precedent for media freedom.
On Monday, the Jammu and Kashmir government took control of the building allotted to Kashmir Press Club after a group of journalists and newspaper owners accompanied by members of armed forces took over the establishment and elected a management body on January 15.
The building was taken over by the government a day after it suspended the registration of the press club, citing adverse reports from the police’s Criminal Investigation Department. Before this, the Kashmir Press Club had announced it will hold elections to form a new management and an executive committee on February 15.
In its statement on Tuesday, the Editors Guild noted that the Kashmir Press Club was established in 2018 and had over 300 members, making it the largest journalists’ association in the region.
“With the shutting down of the club and the government reverting the land to back to the Estates Department, an important journalistic institution in a region that has seen the worst kind state heavy handedness against any independent media, has effectively been dismantled.”
The Editors Guild pointed said that the space for media freedom and civil society has been fading in region. It listed several instances of detention of journalists, including that of Sajad Gul, Peerzada Ashiq, Masrat Zahra, Fahad Shah, and the killing of the Rising Kashmir Editor Shujaat Bukhari.
The press body also pointed out that the office of the Srinagar office of Kashmir Times was sealed in October 2020 and in April last year, and that the police had issued advisories stopping the media from reporting on the gunfights with militants.
“In a state-ridden with such excesses against the media, Kashmir Press Club was an important institution for fighting for protection and rights of journalists,” it said.
The guild also reiterated its earlier demand to restore status quo with respect to the functioning of the club and the administration work towards “building and protecting the space for a free press”.
The Editors Guild of India is deeply anguished by the shutting down of the Kashmir Press Club, following a disturbing sequence of events- an armed takeover of the Club with the aid of state police, and its “re-registration" being earlier put "in abeyance".#KashmirPressClub pic.twitter.com/rhXyUWAn6h
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) January 18, 2022
