Kashmiri representative, Advocate Parvez Ahmad, has said that assaults and reprisals against journal-ists and groups engaged with the UN in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have increased over the year.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Advocate Parvez Ahmad speaking during the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva said the right to engage with the United Nations mechanisms is a basic exercise of fundamental freedoms and human rights of all and must be respected and protected.
He said former UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, had highlighted the state repression and high-handedness against the local journalists in IIOJK. “For over a decade now, the international journalists remain barred from entering and reporting from the disputed territory. In addition, the internet and other communication services are often snapped or throttled at a very low speed denying people any meaningful way of com-municating. Political dissent is criminalized by draconian laws, pushing journalists and newspapers into near total submission while continually perpetuating an atmosphere of fear,” he added.
Advocate Parvez deplored that the newspapers which tried to highlight the state repression have been targeted through various crude ways to deter others from speaking. He said The Kashmir Walla, a news site that covered the Kashmir conflict and its effects on people’s lives, is one of the most recent victims of this repression. The Kashmir Walla’s website and social media accounts were shut down by the authorities on August 19, 2023 on the ground that they were “glorifying terrorism” and “spreading fake news”, he added.
