Tue 20 October 2020:
The Estates Department of Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday sealed the office of a famous daily in Srinagar. The owners of the newspaper, however, claimed that the due process of law was not followed.
The office of ‘Kashmir Times’ at Press Enclave in Srinagar was sealed yesterday. No reason was provided for the action.
Meanwhile, the newspaper owners claimed they were not served with any notice of cancellation or eviction.
“Our office in Srinagar was locked without any due process of law. No notice ‘whether of cancellation or eviction’ was served to us,” Kashmir Times owner Anuradha Bhasin told news agency PTI.
Kashmir Times owner Anuradha Bhasin.
Bhasin added that around a month ago, there were whispers about the government working out to evict them from the building at the Press Enclave, however, there was no formal communication in this regard from the Estates Department.
“We had approached the Estates Department and asked them to please serve us the order, but they gave us nothing. Then we approached the court, but no order has been given even there,” she added.
She added that the sealing of the newspaper’s Srinagar office was a bit similar to her recent eviction from a flat in Jammu.
On her Twitter handle, she wrote: “Today, Estates Dept locked our office without any due process of cancellation & eviction, same way as I was evicted from a flat in Jammu, where my belongings including valuables were handed over to ‘new allottee.’ Vendetta for speaking out! No due process followed. How peevish!”
Bhasin alleged that there is a “vendetta” against her “for speaking out against the government” and moving the Supreme Court against restrictions on media in Jammu and Kashmir post the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
“The day I went to court last year, that very day, the state government advertisements to Kashmir Times were stopped,” said Bhasin.
Expressed support
Fahad Shah, editor of online outlet The Kashmir Walla, while describing Bhasin as one of the “strong voices” said the media in Kashmir has been facing “the most difficult situation post-August 2019, and yet a few of us continue to fight it.”
“In return, govt uses media policy, jails, summons, terror cases, intimidation to stop free press. It is daily battle to sustain freedom of press in Kashmir,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) termed the act an attack on press freedom.
“The office of The Kashmir Times, one of the most respected newspapers of the region, has just been sealed by the local govt after its editor Anuradha Bhasin was recently manhandled. @RSF_inter is appalled by this new attack on press freedom in the valley,” it said.
