Press Statement, 6 February 2022

We Condemn the Arrest of Fahad Shah in Kashmir

The Editors Guild of India

The Editors Guild of India strongly condemns the arrest of Fahad Shah, the editor of the Kashmir Walla, on February 4, 2022, on the specious ground of “glorifying terrorist activities, spreading fake news & inciting general public for creating [law and order] situation,” as per a police statement post his arrest.

Shah had been questioned four days earlier for his reporting on a deadly police raid in Pulwama in late January that left four people dead. He has been summoned and detained multiple times for his writing over the past few years. This arrest is part of a larger trend in Kashmir of security forces calling journalists for questioning and often detaining them, because of their critical reporting of the establishment. In a separate incident, journalist Gowhar Geelani has also been summoned by the executive magistrate of Shopian district to appear in court on February 7 for “acting in a manner prejudicial to public interest”. Last month, Sajad Gul, another journalist of Kashmir Walla, was also arrested because of his social media posts that were considered objectionable by the authorities.

The space for media freedom has progressively eroded in Kashmir. Last month, security forces abetted some journalists in a coup of the Kashmir Press Club management, and then later on state authorities shut down the club completely, reverting the land back to the Estates department.

The Guild urges the state administration to respect democratic values and stop the harassment of journalists in the name of national security. The Guild also demands immediate release of Fahad Shah as well as Sajad Gul, and to ensure that FIRs under harsh penal laws, intimidatory questioning, and wrongful detainment are not used as tools for suppressing journalists’ rights.

(Seema Mustafa, President; Sanjay Kapoor, General Secretary; Anant Nath, Treasurer)

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Press Release, 7/02/2022

Fahad Shah and the Tragic Fate of Journalism in Kashmir

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights

The recent arrest of Fahad Shah, editor of Kashmir Walla, under S 13 of UAPA and S 124 A and 505 of IPC for ‘uploading anti-national content’ raises a debate about the fate of journalism in times of conflict. Shah was arrested as he had uploaded Inayat Ahmad Mir’s family’s protest over the police’s claim that Mir was a “hybrid terrorist”—an unlisted and camouflaged militant—in the encounter that had happened in his house in Naira Pulwama on January 30, 2022.

Shah’s arrest on February 4, 2022, comes in the wake of arrests and harassment that journalists in Kashmir have faced in the last three years. Qazi Shibli, the editor of Kashmiriyat, was detained under PSA, between July 2019 and April 2020, again detained for 18 days from July 31, 2020 by the cybercrime division of the J&K police. On August 6, 2021, the police broke into his house and raided the premises without a warrant. In September 2020, independent journalist, Auqib Javeed, found himself at the mercy of the cyber wing of the J&K police after having written on harassment that internet users in Kashmir face at the hands of the police. Peerzada Ashiq of The Hindu was questioned for ‘fake news’ in April 2020, and Masrat Zahra and Gowhar Geelani, both independent journalists, were booked under UAPA in the same month. A few weeks before Fahad Shah’s arrest, his colleague Sajad Gul was first arrested by the army on January 5, 2022, at Bandipora for uploading a protest video of the killing of LeT commander, Salim Parry in an encounter on January 3 in Srinagar. Gul was granted bail but was arrested the next day under PSA, on January 16, 2022, on charges of promoting anti-nationalism.

In almost each of these instances, the police has claimed that in the “garb of journalism” these individuals have actively spread “disinformation and false narratives” to create “ill will” against the government by provoking the general masses to resort to violence and disturb public peace and tranquillity. In the case of Fahad Shah’s ‘offence’, that of uploading a protest video of the family of a slain teenager, a few points need to be reiterated. One, presenting both sides of the story, as Shah does, does not tantamount to glorification of terrorism; it is a part of objective reportage. Second, the airing of the grievances of the protesting families does not promote terrorism; instead, it draws attention to the ‘hurt sentiments’ of the grieving Kashmiri Muslim families. Third, by treating journalism and social media uploads as law and order cases, the UAPA has once again proven itself to be an unlawful law as its definitional vagueness allows constitutionally protected activities to be criminalized. Four, if the police is able to discern ‘intention’ in social media posts and in journalistic pieces, then fundamental freedoms have no meaning outside of what the police feels and believes.

It is time for the political opposition to argue for the repeal of undemocratic laws and to ensure that a democratic polity does not become a police property.

PUDR demands

• Unconditional release of Fahad Shah and other journalists
• Repeal of UAPA
• Removal of S. 124 A of the IPC

(Radhika Chitkara and Deepika Tandon, Secretaries PUDR)