Angry mobs target Valley journalists covering unrest

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 27

With protests gaining momemtum in the Valley, it is becoming increasingly difficult for journalists to report from Kashmir as mobs now even attack local journalists.

On Tuesday night, a Valley-based journalist, Syed Ali Safvi, who reports for Iranian Press TV, was attacked by a mob on the outskirts of Srinagar and his car damaged.

Safvi was heading home after work when he was attacked by an angry mob near the Tengpora locality, even though his car bore a sticker indicating press.

According to Safvi, the group which gathered to protest the killing of Burhan Wani and excesses committed by security forces in the past weeks were furious over what they termed “blatant double standard” by some sections of the media.

“The protesters were yelling that the media has not given fair coverage of Kashmir,” Safvi told The Tribune. He had a narrow escape.

In fact, during the ongoing unrest in Kashmir, mediapersons, both local and those reporting for the national and international media, had been at the receiving end.

On July 22, a senior photojournalist, Dar Yasin, working for an international news agency, was thrashed by near the SHMS Hospital. He and some journalists had gone there to cover funeral prayers of a civilian killed in firing.

Many journalists, in their reportage on the situation, had indicated that it had become difficult to reach interior of south Kashmir as they had to face angry civilian protesters and government forces on the way.

“As soon as the people, who were readying to offer the funeral prayers, saw mediapersons, someone from the crowd yelled ‘Indian media channels’. They pounced upon the journalists and caught hold of Yasin, beating him up and smashing his camera,” said a mediaperson witness to the incident.

By the time the crowd got to know that Dar was working for an international media agency and not any national news channel, the damage had been done, he said.

“People cannot differentiate between a TV journalist and a print media journalist. The primary reason for the public anger against the media is the biased reportage of Kashmir by the electronic media,” said Javed Dar, a senior photojournalist working for a Chinese news agency.

Dar said photojournalists were the first to the reach the spot and usually faced the wrath of angry crowds.