A high-level delegation of the Press Council of India is visiting Jammu and Kashmir early next month to study the media scenario in the state following the abrogation of the special status and bifurcation of the state into two union territories.
According to an official communication, a subcommittee of the council comprising of Pravat Kumar Dash, convenor, Balwinder Singh, Sayyed Hussain Rizvi and Kamal Nain Narang (members) will visit Jammu and Kashmir from November 5-11 to “study the media scenario in Jammu and Srinagar.”
The council is a quasi judicial statutory body set up under an Act of the parliament for the purpose of preserving the freedom of press, and maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and news agencies.
According to officials, the council has received various representations from journalist associations in connection with the restrictions on media in Jammu and Kashmir.
Officials said the council constituted a subcommittee on August 22 after receiving complaints regarding stressful working conditions for the journalists and intimated the state government about its plan to visit the state.
According to official sources, the committee will meet with various journalists and journalist associations as well as other stakeholders in both the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu during their seven day stay in Jammu and Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir is currently under President's rule. The state Assembly was dissolved on November 2018 after the ruling coalition between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) fell apart in June 2018.
The Valley has remained under lockdown for over two months since the abrogation of the Article 370 by the BJP-led Centre and a sweeping crackdown on not just militants but even mainstream parties like National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party with former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti under detention.
An array of political leaders, businessmen, lawyers, activists and others have also been confined to Centaur Hotel on the banks of Dal Lake which has been declared as a sub-jail by the state administration. Recently, four leaders including former lawmakers were released from the sub jail.
The government has not made any announcement yet on the charges under which most of the mainstream leaders and others have been arrested, and whether and when they will be released, although the release of four leaders seemed to have paved way for restoration of political process in the state.
Relatives of Omar and Mehbooba have been allowed to meet the leaders at Hari Niwas Palace and a guest house at Cheshma Shahi where the two leaders are being held respectively. Leaders of NC also met the party chief Dr Farooq Abdullah who has been held under the Public Safety Act.
Earlier, the daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija Mufti, had written to the home minister that she was fearing for her life and that she was being denied permission to meet her mother who she said has been confined to ‘one room’. She however later met her mother and has been lately sending out tweets from her mother’s account.