The Caravan magazine, India’s leading platform for investigative journalism, has contested a Modi government order to take down its story on torture and death of civilians at the hands of the Indian army in Poonch district of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, The Caravan piece titled ‘Screams from the Army Post — The Indian Army’s torture and murder of civilians in restive Jammu’ pertains to the torture and deaths of villagers in Topa Pir area of Poonch district at the hands of the Indian army in December last year. The article carried pictures of victims’ families showing stacks of currency notes they were reportedly given by the army as compensation.
The custodial killings of three civilians after they were picked up by the Indian army caused anger among people and led to calls for an investigation into the horrific incident.
“This is to inform readers we have received an order from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, directing us to take down this story in 24 hrs…” the magazine tweeted. Executive editor Hartosh Singh Bal refused to share the contents of the notice due to its absurd confidentiality clause. “The IT ministry has declared the notice ‘confidential’. This confidentiality is absurd… Such proceedings should be transparent. Why are we afraid to reveal the reason for which we need to take the article down? We are supposedly the ones who have to defend ourselves but they (government) are the ones who are concealing facts,” he said.
The Caravan gave 48 hours to the army to reply to its questionnaire. “Everything is fact-based. Forty-eight hours were given to the army for the reply. If the army does not choose to reply, that’s their concern. We reached out to everyone who was affected and named in the story. Everything is factually researched. It is based on the conversation with the victims and everyone who was involved in the story. Every due care was taken,” said Bal.
It is worth noting that official takedown orders compelling the removal of critical reporting and opinion have become an increasingly common tool of Modi’s government which has employed a range of intimidating tactics to ensure no reporting critical of its actions comes out of IIOJK. The fresh order is another depiction of attack on press freedom in India.—KMS
