Govt stopped ads to 2 dailies: Editors Guild

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 22

The Kashmir Editors Guild on Friday said the state government had stopped advertisements to two major local daily newspapers -- Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader.

In a statement, the guild said the state government had not given any reason for stopping the advertisement and described it as “deliberate strangulation and subversion of the institution of media in the state”.

“At a time when democracy is in suspension, the KEG is seeking attention of the Press Council of India and the Editors Guild of India to exercise their legal, ethical and professional mandate to intervene in the issue and ensure that the media in one of the most sensitive states is not strangulated,” the guild said.

The guild said it had decided to move to the Press Council of India and also involve the Editors Guild of India.

“The guild reiterated that the media in Kashmir is one of the most professional media and has retained its neutrality even at the cost of lives. It will continue to do so,” it said.

It further said that the “attempts at strangulating the media is in continuation of what has happened in the last more than three decades”.

“Interestingly, the strangulation bid came at a time when the media in general and the Kashmir media in particular is putting up a huge and costly battle with the social media set-ups to ensure that the truth is cleanly and clearly separated and reported from mass rumour mongering,” it said.

The guild also called upon the state government, presided over by the Governor, and urged that the “negative intervention in the media is compromising the Constitution as it goes against the constitutional guarantees within which the media operates in Kashmir and outside”.