The Kashmir Press Club (KPC) on Thursday condemned the lodging of a First Information Report (FIR) against two Valley-based portals.
“The KPC condemns the registration of an FIR against two Kashmir based news portals for running a story on a school in Shopian in south Kashmir. This authoritative approach apparently shows a deliberate attempt to pressurise journalists,” a KPC spokesman said.
The KPC has urged the authorities to withdraw the FIR against the media organisations and the journalists.
“A free and vibrant media is key to the survival of a democratic set-up. Instead of going ahead with the complaint or the registration of the case, the authorities concerned, through a standard procedure, should have sought a clarification from the news websites in question, if at all there was any factual inaccuracy in their stories. But no such procedure was followed and instead a case was filed,” the KPC spokesman said.
The two portals, The Kashmir Walla and The Kashmiriyat, faced charges under several Sections after they carried a story about a school in Shopian allegedly being forced by the Army to organise a Republic Day function on its premises.
Both the head of the school and the Army refuted the news and filed a police complaint. However, a spokesman of the Kashmir Walla said it stood by its story and claimed to have evidence it was ready “to share with the court when required”.
