Kashmir Editors Guild seeks immediate release of Kamran Yousuf

Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) has strongly reacted to the “new definition” of a journalist that was detailed in the charge-sheet of incarcerated Kashmir photo-journalist Kamran Yousuf.

Spokesman of the Guild, Shafat Kira, in a statement said that KEG members held an emergency meeting here to discuss the issue.

   

“If the policemen are supposed to define the roles and responsibilities of the journalists, which manage the fourth pillar of democracy, the universities that train thousands of scribes in a year across India must be locked,” Kira quoted KEG members as having said.

“Re-defining journalism is usually seen as an effort by totalitarian and dictatorial regimes, not by democracies,” the KEG members said.

The KEG reiterated its stand on Kamran Yousuf that he is a news photographer working as a freelancer with various media houses. “The editors sought his early release and insisted that Yousuf requires a fair trial. Investigators have probed almost all angles of his supposed involvement. So far nothing has been proved as the charge-sheet sug,” the KEG members said.

“It is high time that Yousuf is permitted to move out of jail and resume his routine and help his mother, the only relation he has, in surviving honourably,” the editors said. “His release will contribute to the strengthening of democracy and right to free speech.”

RSF seeks Kamran’s release:   

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have called for the immediate release of Kamran Yousuf. “It is not up to the Indian interior ministry to decide what a journalist is supposed to cover,” said Daniel, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “The contradictory nature of the charges clearly shows that Kamran Yousuf is being used as a scapegoat in order to intimidate journalists who try to document the situation in Kashmir.”

“The authorities must free him at once and, above all, they need to understand that it is not the job of journalists to relay their propaganda. As a result of the constraints on press freedom, the state of Jammu and Kashmir is in the process of becoming a new Tibet, a black hole for news and information.”

It may be recalled that Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on National Investigation Agency (NIA) to drop charges against Kamran immediately and free him. “India’s NIA is way out of its league and has no business defining what a real journalist should cover,” Steven Butler, program coordinator for Asia, CPJ, has said.

“Kamran Yousuf’s work is to take photographs of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. It is a public service in the best spirit of journalism. He should be freed immediately,” he added.

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