General Secretary of Jawahar Lal Nehru University Stiudents Union, Aejaz Ahmad Rather, on Thursday said that the Jammu and Kashmir Government extending its ban of advertisement to Kashmir Uzma after Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader is “direct assault” on the freedom of speech.
In an e-mailed statement Rather said, ” Media, the fourthpillar of democracy , has a significant task of bringing grievances of peopleto the fore. On that front , Kashmir media has a positive record of acting as abridge between State and local populace. Such apathy and discrimination towardsthe Kashmir media in a democratic setup are unacceptable.”
He said, “The government is duty bound to respect thefreedom of the press, and the right of people to receive information. It’s notwrong to be critical towards the government. The attempts are being made tointerfere in the freedom of the press by exerting financial pressure. Thiscensorship has put the question markon the credibility of stateadministration.”
Rather said that the ban has come at a time when electionsare all around thereby raising strong doubts about the intention of the ban.”To strengthen democratic roots in Kashmir, encouragement of free media anddynamic freedom of speech are pre-requisites. Unfortunately the ban of advertisements will add to themiseries and sufferings of Kashmiri media. The ban must be revoked to endhardships faced by media community in Kashmir,” Rather added.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of Democratic Freedom Party alsocondemned government’s decision to ban advertisements to Greater Kashmir,Kashmir Uzma and Kashmir Reader.
“Kashmir media hasbeen performing professionally and to threaten it by using economic tools asbanning government advertisements is aimed at harming the basic concept ofdemocracy. The government decision can directly impact the lives of hundreds ofmedia persons whose bread and butter is linked with the institutions they areworking for. So, the banning of advertisements to these newspapers is thematter of hundreds of families of the media fraternity,” the spokesman said.