Matrix Special Post
Kashmiri Muslims sear under the Indian “Iron Curtain.” More than 170 sealed. Only a couple of papers such as Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Image are appearing, mostly as Government Gazette ( as evident from the front page of Greater Kashmir). Thousands of journalists journalists have become jobless, many are either detained or have relocated to Jammu and other cities in search of jobs.
The Internet shutdown in Kashmir over the past 106 days has rendered several software engineers and those who developed content for online platforms, jobless. This blackout has forced many among these youngsters to either migrate to other states and look for new job opportunities or ensure their presence online to earn a living.
Here is a glimpse – as recounted by a Kashmiri journalist friend in Europe – of the crippling conditions the media currently faces in the valley under siege.
I phoned three journalists in Kashmirtoday (Sunday) to gauge the situation there.
All three were extremely brief – apparently driven by the omni-present surveillance tools.
The first one, after exchanging the usual salam- duaa, hung up by saying: Yaar bus dua karna( please keep praying for us.
The other friend responded with a “salam” but then hung up on me after figuring out my identity.
The third was also very brief but provided a crisp and candid update.
Most of journalists, he said, are being allowed 15 to 20 minute turns to use official internet services for filing their stories at the newly set up Media Center in Srinagar. We presume all the computers installed by Indian authorities are bugged as much as we are under surveillance.
Media in Kashmir, it is clear, remains under unprecedented chains – a virtual information black-out.
