ETHNIC CLEANSING OF MEDIA
Abha Khanna is not off the mark. The news bureaus in state capitals of all major news agencies, newspapers, TV channels and news magazines across India comprise journalists who often come from different regional, lingual and religious backgrounds. But that’s not the case in Srinagar. For at least the past three decades, Srinagar is the only state capital in India where almost every (over 98%) national and international news bureau is manned by journalists who are Kashmiri and come from the state’s majority community. The 2019 official list of accredited journalists in Srinagar shows that 170 out of 172 are Kashmiris from a single community. One of the remaining two non-Kashmiri journalists whom I called on phone, was working from Chandigarh.
Until 1990 when almost all Kashmiri Pandits, other Hindus and Sikhs were pushed out of the valley, there was the practice of most major national newspapers and news agencies deputing permanent bureau chiefs or correspondents in Srinagar from different states and ethnic backgrounds. But this practice abruptly ended with increased militancy and fanatic public upsurge in the valley.
A CALCULATED MOVE
“Unfortunately, a class of senior bureaucrats, political bigwigs, separatist leaders and some local media leaders created a fear psychosis among the national media representatives and their bosses in New Delhi, Chennai or Mumbai. They saw to it that the practice of outsider journalists manning their news bureaus in Srinagar was stopped and local media men were hired to report on Kashmir. That is how a near total ethnic cleansing of media happened in Kashmir,” says Abha Khanna. This is the case with all major media organisations of the country as well as the international media. This “inbreeding” in the Kashmir media has led to the emergence of a “news mafia” and fanatic syndicates in Kashmir valley who can supply news, photos and TV reports tailored according to the needs and directions of any interested agency. Today, an unwritten code guides the working journalists in Kashmir valley. Unfortunately, even well-meaning and professionally serious Kashmiri journalists do not have a choice but to fall in line for fear of their personal safety. This code demands them to support the generation and promotion of a narrative which is based on certain common lines including the follwing:
* That Kashmir is an occupied territory and Kashmiri people want “azaadi” or separation from India;
* That it is only the Indian Army, and its brutality on Kashmiri people, that is holding Kashmir to India;
* That India alone is responsible for non-resumption of peace talks with Pakistan;
* That Pakistan is key to resolving the Kashmir issue. And that Indian, Pakistani and Kashmiri representatives like the Hurriyat Conference must sit together as equals to reach an agreement on the status of Kashmir;
* That only the term “militant” shall be used and not “terrorist” for anyone involved in armed violence;
* Any stone palter who is injured by the police shall be described just as an “onlooker” who was present there by chance;
* If the “Kashmir Armed Police” is involved in an encounter it will be termed as “killing” by the “Indian forces”;
* If any innocent citizen is killed by terrorists then the armed forces should be blamed for it or it will be presented as having occurred because of “cross-fire” between militants and the Armed forces.
GULLIBLE EDITORS IN NATIONAL MEDIA
The results are visible in national and international media reports on Kashmir. Unfortunately, most editors in the country have hardly any facility or willingness to counter-check these reports. They just lap these up and splash them as their “exclusive” reports from “ground zero”.
For example, on 15 August 2016 a top newspaper published its banner news on the front page with a screaming headline, “Pak Flags Aflutter in Valley on Independence-Day Eve”. The news was supported by a dramatic photo of a masked young man posing with a Pakistani flag in front of a wall poster of Burhan Wani. Neither the photo shows any identifiable landmark or a public demonstration nor the news report gives any reference to even one event of a demonstration. In the end, it was a manipulated photo and a manufactured news which demoralised millions of readers on Independence Day.
SOME EXAMPLES
In the given media environment, the Valley has mastered the art of giving an anti-India tilt to any development—even to prominent events like Indian Army’s outstanding service during Kashmir floods of 2014. For example, a prominent newspaper published a report titled “An Anxious Search: A Reunion” by its Srinagar correspondent on 12 September 2014. The report was about the severe Jhelum floods in Kashmir valley. For a change, the Indian Army had won wide appreciation from common Kashmiris because of the Armymen’s dedicated and tireless efforts to save lives and deliver relief to thousands of stranded people across the valley. While the Kashmiri correspondent wrote a long story of self praise for his adventure through deep waters to reach his grandmother, uncle, aunts and three young cousins, he ended his report with the following sentences: “The Army had airdropped packets of chips and biscuits. ‘They are all past expiry date,’ my uncle shouted…I was too happy to see them alive to care about the expiry dates on the packets.” Another Kashmiri reporter wrote about some boys standing on a Jhelum bridge and throwing their shoes towards an Indian Army helicopter for giving them “past expiry date” food packets. Even government run media is not free from the grip of this narrative of protecting the terrorists. For example, on 10 July 2017, when Pakistani terrorists in Kashmir attacked a bus carrying Amarnath Yatris and gunned down eight Hindu pilgrims, the Srinagar correspondent of the government’s own TV channel, a Kashmiri IIS officer, reported in his phone report that they were killed in crossfire between the “militants” and Indian armed forces.
INTERNATIONAL AGENDA-MEDIA
As for the foreign media’s reporting on Kashmir, the less said the better. Their Kashmiri representatives in Srinagar have perfected the art of tailoring the news, photographs and video clips to the requirements of their masters as well as feeding gullible foreign correspondents with their own narrative. For example, a well-known foreign newspaper’s South Asia correspondent in New Delhi, a Pulitzer Prize winner, presented a photo feature titled “In Kashmir, Growing Anger and Misery” on 30 September 2019. The feature looks like a photo exhibition with made-to-order 17 photos by a professional Indian photographer. In his long winding description of how brave Kashmiris are facing the high-handedness of the Indian armed forces the reporter introduced the subject in these words: “The Indian government has flooded with troops a disputed territory, which is controlled by a popular Hindu nationalist political party.” Reeking of anti-India and pro-separatist and “militant” prejudices, while being completely blind of other aspects, this story by a Pulitzer Prize fame American journalist is now on permanent display on the internet and could well fit as a description of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Interestingly, in yet another story titled “Kashmir, Under Siege and Lockdown, Faces a Mental Health Crisis” on 26 April 2020, another reporter, a Kashmiri, from the same news organisation, painted Kashmir as turning into a mental asylum. At a time when the story is about the new situation arising out of the coronavirus pandemic, this Kashmiri journalist a new dimension to it by adding “years of strife and India’s clampdown on Kashmir” to the Covid-19 onslaught!
It goes without saying that the real challenge before the Narendra Modi government when it comes to Kashmir is how to deal with this information war systematically spreading misperception.
Vijay Kranti is a senior journalist and Chairman, Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement.