Occupied Kashmir newspapers publish blank pages to protest govt ban on ads

SRINAGAR: Several prominent newspapers Sunday published blank front pages in occupied Kashmir to protest against the unexplained denial by the Indian authorities of advertisements to valley-based two leading newspapers, Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader.

The Kashmir Editors Guild had earlier sought the attention of the Press Council of India and the Editors Guild to exercise their legal, ethical and professional mandate to intervene in the issue and ensure that the media was not strangulated.

The Indian authorities had stopped advertisements to the two major dailies a day after the February 14 Pulwama attack.

Condemning the ban, the Guild had said the media in Kashmir was one of the most professional and had retained its neutrality even at the cost of lives.

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“It will continue to do so. The professional capacities of Kashmir media have been acknowledged world over. The Press Council of India has also issued a detailed report in 2018, detailing the issues and challenges that the Kashmir media is facing. The guild also wants to reiterate that the attempts at strangulating the media is in continuation of what has happened in last more than three decades,” it said.

Meanwhile, Kashmir Editors Guild on Sunday held a protest demonstration at Kashmir Press Club, Srinagar against the government’s ban on advertisements to Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader. Senior editors and journalists took part in the protest to demand revocation of ban on advertisements to the two English dailies.

In February, the Kashmir administration, under Governor Satya Pal Malik, had suspended advertisement to the two newspapers without specifying a reason.

Major English and Urdu newspapers in Kashmir published blank front pages to protest the suspension of advertisement to the dailies.