J&K journalists struggle after latest ‘e-curfew’

Many people in Kashmir today strongly believe that they live in a Kafkaesque world as the authorities struggle to contain the five-week-old unrest and snapped almost all mobile services in the Valley.

Even the Internet services that were earlier available on BSNL broadband had also been withdrawn at the weekend.

Apart from tour operators, fruit-growers, handicraft dealers and other tradesmen, it is the media which is suffering enormously in the upshot of the “e-curfew” in the Valley.

Life continued at a standstill in the scenic region often referred to as “paradise on Earth” on Tuesday, the 39th day of the present unrest, due to official curfews being strictly enforced in cities and towns.

Where there are no curfews or security clampdowns in place, separatist-sponsored shutdowns have halted every day life. Besides setting a humanitarian crisis, it has virtually imprisoned the Valley’s over seven million population.

The “e-curfew” has made the work of journalists extremely difficult.

The local newspapers have either suspended publications or brought their volume down considerably. One of the leading English newspapers which used to be of 20 pages on weekdays and 36 pages on Sundays has come down to eight pages on all days and reaches only select areas in the mornings.

Correspondents and reporters working for national newspapers and other media organisations have to toil hard to send their copies to offices outside the Valley, and in the absence of Internet, many either just cannot do it or have turned to older methods of communicating.

Even covering incidents and chasing stories have become tougher as the security forces either refuse reporters access to places where incidents have occured or do not honour curfew passes issued to them by district magistrates. During the past five weeks, several media persons were thrashed and their equipment damaged by men in khaki.

Also, there have been a number of instances in which the members of the fourth estate and their vehicles came under attack from irate crowds or groups of mysterious men alleging “jingoism’ and “inequitable” and “prejudiced” coverage by some national