Indian police summon journalists in IIOJ&K over routine reporting

NEW DELHI: The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday called for authorities in the Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) to immediately end the harassment and intimidation of journalists, after at least two Kashmir-based correspondents for national media outlets were summoned by police in connection with their reporting.

“Using police powers to summon journalists over their legitimate reporting is part of a pattern of intimidation against the media in Jammu and Kashmir,” said CPJ Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator Kunal Majumder. “Authorities must cease their harassment and ensure that journalists are not subjected to arbitrary police action for doing their jobs.”

On January 14, Bashaarat Masood, an assistant editor with The Indian Express, was called to the Cyber Police Station in the city of Srinagar for questioning about a report he wrote on reaction to a police exercise seeking information about the region’s mosques and their management, according to multiple news reports.

Officers then took Masood to a district magistrate and asked him to sign a bond stating he would not repeat his “mistake,” without specifying any legal violation. Masood refused to do so and was asked to report back to the police station daily over the next four days.

Under India’s criminal procedure framework, now called the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, police can seek a preventive bond from individuals to “keep the peace” or maintain “good behaviour,” even in the absence of a criminal charge.

On January 19, a Srinagar-based correspondent for the Hindustan Times, Ashiq Hussain, was also summoned by police in connection with his reporting, according to news reports. Hussain did not comply with the summons, citing a lack of clarity from police about the basis for the questioning.

Srinagar’s Cyber Police Station did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request seeking comment.