SRINAGAR: Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday urged the Omar Abdullah govt to discard J&K’s media policy formulated after the abrogation of Article 370, which, it alleged, was aimed at muzzling the press.
Speaking in the Assembly, PDP member Waheed Parra said: “When J&K was downgraded into a Union Territory, the first thing govt started was mass censorship and communication blockade. The media was the biggest casualty in it.”
The media policy currently in place in J&K “doesn’t need review; instead, it should be scrapped”, Parra said.
On Tuesday, J&K govt had said it was formulating a new media policy taking emerging platforms like social media into account. In a written reply, govt said: “The formulation of new media policy aims to align with the evolving media landscape and adhere to the standards set by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, Govt of India.”
Parra also raised the issue of Kashmir Press Club, which was closed in 2022, and said the police station functioning from its premises be shifted and the press club be restored to journalists.
According to the media policy formulated in 2020, considering J&K is fighting a proxy war, it is necessary that before empanelment of newspapers for advertisements, antecedents of everyone working there should be checked. It also laid emphasis on “a robust background check, including verification of antecedents of each journalist”, before giving press accreditation. Since then, a number of newspapers have been denied advertisements and several journalists refused accreditation.
The 2020 policy also says govt’s information department will examine the “content of print, electronic and other media for fake news, plagiarism and unethical or anti-national activities”. Any individual or group indulging in such acts/practices “shall be de-empanelled, besides being proceeded against under law”, it states.
“There shall be no release of advertisements to any media entity which incites or tends to incite violence, questions sovereignty and integrity of India, or violates the accepted norms of public decency and behaviour,” the media policy further says. However, it does not explain what constitutes “fake news” “anti-national activities” or “plagiarism”.
