Srinagar, July 11: Valley based newspaper organizations on Sunday decided to resume publication after assurances from the Government that it wouldn’t intimidate the Kashmiri journalists.
A spokesman of the media fraternity said the Government had assured that it would provide adequate curfew passes to the media persons review all cases filed by police against journalists and provide curfew passes to newspapers hawkers. It is for the first time that curfew passes would be issued to hawkers.
An official spokesman this evening said: “On the instructions of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, who also holds the charge of Principal Secretary, Information, held a meeting with the representatives of media associations in which all issues raised were resolved amicably.”
 The members also took the issue of registration of the FIR against the News X correspondents and asked the government to withdraw it. The spokesman said the government has assured them that it would reconsider the decision.
 On Saturday Police had registered a case against a New Delhi based television news channel- News-X and its reporters for allegedly running incorrect news about the death of a person in police firing in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
  Pertinently, all newspapers published from Srinagar had suspended publication to protest the restrictions on the movement of journalists, cancellation of their curfew passes and registration of cases against journalists. Journalist fraternity in Kashmir had condemned strong-arm measures of government to curb smooth functioning of media in Kashmir.  “It has been made impossible for the journalists to cover news and also publish the newspapers. Therefore, in these circumstances, it has been decided to collectively suspend publication of all newspapers in Kashmir to protest against the draconian measures,” journalists had said in a joint statement issued on Saturday.
 Around 60 newspapers in Urdu and English languages are published from Srinagar. The newspapers failed to hit the stands for the fourth consecutive day Sunday.
 Yesterday journalists staged a sit-in protest at Press Enclave against the curbs imposed on them and decided to suspended publications of newspapers unless government assures free movement of journalists.
 In the meeting today the representatives of the five journalist bodies raised several issues and also took strong note of the government’s decision to facilitate entry of selected journalists from New Delhi at a time when Srinagar based journalists were being heckled and restricted by police.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST