The Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) has expressed its gratitude to the Press Council of India (PCI) for taking cognizance of the complaint filed by it over stopping government advertisements to two major dailies, ‘Greater Kashmir’ and ‘Kashmir Reader’, published from Srinagar, Kashmir.
“It is a welcome step by the PCI as measures like curbingfree flow of information tend to undermine the freedom of press, besidesputting the media organizations through whole lot of trouble,” KEG said in astatement issued here.
A notice for statement in reply has been issued to thegovernment of Jammu and Kashmir and the state information department by the PCIafter major newspapers of Kashmir protested by running blank front pages onMarch 10 against the government’s decision of stopping governmentadvertisements to the two dailies.
The KEG has been requesting the authorities to at leastoffer the organizations a reason for why the advertisements were stopped,without intimation and reason. However, there has been no reply from thegovernment over the issue.