Don't Harass Journalists, Say Press Groups After NIA Questions Kashmiri Reporter
THE WIRE
July 16,2018
The reporter was asked about a sedition case filed against Dukhtaraan-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi and two of her aides.
A Kashmiri reporter, Auqib Javeed, was reportedly questioned for three hours by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) in New Delhi on Saturday (July 14) and summoned again on Sunday.
According to the Kashmir Observer, where Javeed works, the reporter was asked about a sedition case filed against Dukhtaraan-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi and two of her aides. In January, Javeed had interviewed Andrabi, who was arrested by the NIA on July 6, for a local magazine.
“I was asked questions regarding interviews of various persons done by me, types of stories which I do, my education including schooling and higher studies as well as family background,” Javeed was quoted as saying. “I entered the NIA office at around 4 pm and left at around 7 pm. Two officers were in the room and their questions centred on my work and my person.”
Javeed went to the NIA office accompanied by lawyer Vinod Trisal, but was told there was “no need” for a lawyer.
Two journalists’ organisations – the Kashmir Working Journalist Association and Kashmir Journalist Association – have condemned the NIA’s decision to question Javeed in a statement. “… the summoning reflects highhanded approach of the federal agency to ascribe motive to journalists’ professional work, and summon them like criminals,” the groups said.
This summons, the organisations said, cannot be seen in isolation. “We also realize that the latest summon seems to part of a larger conspiracy to muzzle press freedom in Kashmir and terrorise its journalist fraternity,” the statement reads.
Javeed is also a contributor to The Wire. His most recent article, written after Shujaat Bukhari’s assassination, was on the threats and pressures faced by reporters working and living in Kashmir.
This isn’t the first time the investigative agency’s attitude towards journalists – particularly those reporting from the Valley – has come into question. In February, the NIA claimed that Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yusuf could not be counted as a “real journalist”. Why? Because he had not been taking photographs of development and infrastructure programmes launched by the government. Ironically, Yusuf’s lawyer said that photos of such development project very much a part of his portfolio.
The NIA has charged Yusuf with being a stone-pelter and carrying out “terrorist and secessionist activities”. His family has said that these charges are fabricated. When a special NIA court granted bail to Yusuf in March, six months after he was arrested, the judge not only question the charges against him but also said that he had “shown himself as a bonafide journalist of the disturbed areas of J&K”.
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