New Delhi: Indian authorities should allow Kashmiri photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo to travel abroad freely and collect her Pulitzer Prize in New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
On Monday evening, immigration officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi stopped Mattoo, who was flying to New York to receive the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in a ceremony scheduled for Thursday, according to the journalist who spoke with CPJ by phone, the committee said in a statement.
Mattoo, a freelance photojournalist, was part of a Reuters team that won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the COVID pandemic in India, according to the journalist and the Pulitzer website.
“This is the second time I have been stopped without reason or cause…Being able to attend the award ceremony was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me,” Mattoo said.
CPJ’s Asia program coordinator in Germany, Beh Lih Yi, said, “There is no reason why Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo, who had all the right travel documents and has won a Pulitzer – one of the most prestigious journalism awards – should have been prevented from travelling abroad. This decision is arbitrary and excessive. Indian authorities must immediately cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against journalists covering the situation in Kashmir.”
Notably, this is not the first time that Mattoo has been barred from travelling abroad. In July, she was stopped from flying to France, where she was scheduled to attend events as one of 10 winners of the Serendipity Arles Grant.
