The Indian government has shut down the Kashmir Press Club, prompting an outcry from journalists, politicians and others who called the move further evidence of efforts to silence critical reporting in the disputed territory.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday cancelled the allotment of building and land which housed Srinagar’s Kashmir Press Club, two days after it was taken over by a small group of journalists flanked by the police.
The government said that it wanted to avoid a law and order situation after “rival groups levelled various allegations against each other”. The premises have been handed over back to the estates department.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1947. The Indian-administered part has seen decades of unrest that has killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians.
Journalists there have come under heightened pressure in recent years, subject increasingly to arrests, raids, prosecution on “terrorism” related charges, and harassment for their reporting.
The KPC was the only elected journalists’ body in Kashmir liaising with the government on difficulties faced by reporters, and had issued statements critical of police actions hindering the media.
Authorities on Monday said that the association, created in 2019 after a lengthy struggle by local journalists, had “ceased to exist” as a registered body, accusing members of “illegalities on several counts”.
They said that the club had failed to re-register under new laws introduced after the region came under direct Indian rule in 2019, and that its management committee had failed to hold elections.
Last month authorities granted a fresh registration after a rigorous six-month process — following which new elections were announced — but two days later held it in “abeyance”.
On Saturday, a group of pro-government journalists, accompanied by armed police and paramilitary troops, deployed outside the premises and declared themselves in charge.
The Editor’s Guild of India called the action an “armed takeover”. Ishfaq Tantray, club secretary, said that the government “wanted to stifle the voice of journalists that resonated through the forum called Kashmir Press Club, the only democratic and independent journalist body (in Kashmir)”.
“It seems that the coup & its aftermath was entirely orchestrated to shut down another outlet that served as a medium for journalists to debate & discuss their opinions freely,” former Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Twitter.
“With every passing day all the safety valves to express dissent are being muzzled.”
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the aim of the shutdown was “to prevent journalists from doing their jobs”, calling on authorities to stop the “repeated harassment of journalists” in Kashmir.
In its Monday statement, the government said it was committed to a free and fair press and “journalists are entitled to all facilities, including a place for professional, educational, social, cultural, recreational and welfare activities”.
The statement added that the government expects a new “bona fide society of all journalists” to approach it for “reallocation” of the KPC premises.
The controversy started with a couple of letters that surfaced on social media on January 13. They were addressed to the Srinagar district magistrate and apparently signed by various journalists, many of whom were members of the club. They pointed out that the tenure of the club’s elected executive body had lapsed six months earlier and asked the district magistrate to intervene. They also proposed the formation of a interim committee.
Within hours, the elected body, whose term had lapsed in July 2021, responded with a statement. Elections had been held up, it said, because the club had to be registered afresh under the new laws of the Union Territory government. But that process was now complete.
“The government has communicated the same to the [club] management last week,” the statement said. “The club management had been waiting for this process to complete for about six months.” Elections for a new managing body could now be held.
But then the government appears to have made a U-turn. On January 14, the club management issued a fresh statement saying it had received an order “informing that the re-registration certificate issued to the club on 29/12/2021 under Society Registration Act, 1860 has been kept in abeyance”.
The order, issued by the registrar of societies and firms, said that it was acting on information sent by the additional district magistrate of Srinagar. According to him, the additional district magistrate had issued a “character certificate” to members of the managing body on December 24. The character certificate verified the antecedents of each member. But this was now put on hold, on the basis of a report by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Criminal Investigation Department.
On January 15, a group of journalists, led by the Times of India’s Srinagar correspondent, M Salim Pandit, held a meeting of the “new interim body” in the club building while security personnel stood guard outside. They then issued a statement under the club’s official letterhead, entitled “Takeover of Kashmir Press Club, Srinagar,” declaring themselves the interim managing body.
Many journalists at the club openly voiced their objections to the “takeover”, and on January 15 a joint statement issued by nine different journalists’ associations in Kashmir called it a “highly condemnable and completely illegal move”.
The “interim body” shot back with another statement that same evening, claiming “some vested interests were trying to create chaos in the media fraternity with sinister motives.” The police had been present during the “takeover”, it continued, because the local police station wanted to make sure Covid-19 protocols were observed. It also said that the club would remain closed to visitors for a week as a member of the “interim body” had tested positive for Covid-19.
A fresh round of condemnations followed, this time from journalists’ bodies across the country, from the Mumbai Press Club to the Press Club India Editors’ Guild.
On January 17, as the Jammu and Kashmir government took control of the press club building, it said it had been forced to act as it was “concerned over the emergent situation which has arisen due to the unpleasant turn of events involving two rival warring groups using the banner of the Kashmir Press Club.”
The government hoped that “duly registered bona fide society of all journalists” could soon be formed. The government would return the club building on the request of such a body.
