Out of seven incarcerated journalists in India, as mentioned in the 2022 report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), five scribes are Muslims, four of them are from Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The report notes that India continues to face criticism for its treatment of the media. The report titled “Number of jailed journalists spikes to new global record” mentions the names of Kashmiri journalists arrested under the draconian PSA (Public Safety Act).

“India, with seven journalists in jail, continues to draw criticism over its treatment of the media, in particular its use of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, a preventive detention law, to keep Kashmiri journalists Aasif Sultan, Fahad Shah, and Sajad Gul behind bars after they were granted court-ordered bail in separate cases,” notes the report. Besides three Kashmiri journalists, Siddique Kappan, Gautam Navalakha, Manan Dar and Rupesh Kumar Singh are among the jailed journalists as noted by the CPJ.

With regard to the global situation, the report points out that it’s been another record-breaking year for the number of journalists jailed for practicing their profession. The CPJ’s annual prison census has found that 363 reporters were deprived of their freedom as of December 1, 2022 – “a new global high that overtakes last year’s record by 20% and marks another grim milestone in a deteriorating media landscape”. “A key driver behind authoritarian governments’ increasingly oppressive efforts to stifle the media: trying to keep the lid on broiling discontent in a world disrupted by COVID-19 and the economic fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine,” says the report.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP