“Narendra Modi’s repressive media policies are destroying Kashmiri journalism, intimidating media outlets into serving as government mouthpieces and creating an information vacuum in the region”, writes Anuradha Bhasin, the Executive Editor of Kashmir Times and the daughter of the late Ved Bhasin, the founder of Kashmir Times. Anuradha Bhasin makes hue and cry about one of the offices of Kashmir Times being sealed and also accuses the current dispensation of curtailing down “Press Freedom”. Anuradha Bhasin throwing such accusations against the current dispensation is not new, the Leftist media personnels have mastered the art to accuse the government of curtailing freedom of speech to hide their follies.
A few months ago, The Estates Department of Jammu and Kashmir administration went up to seal one of the two offices that were granted by the government to “Kashmir Times”. The J&K govt. had allocated two properties to Kashmir Times. One of them was used as office space for the Kashmir Times and the other was used as the residence of Ved Bhasin who is the the founder of newspaper Kashmir Times. Ved Bhasin left his body in 2015 and therefore five years after his death, the administration sealed the government-allotted residence. The administration also gave several notices to the family of Ved Bhasin asking them to leave the residence and finally on 2020, the administration sealed the building.
But hiding the real story, the Executive editor of the newspaper, Anuradha Bhasin is continuously terming the move as a vendetta against her for speaking out against the government. The champions of Freedom rights, Omar Abdullah, and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti too spoke in favor of Anuradha Bhasin and accused the government of the same when the office of Kashmir Times got sealed. Omar Abdullah wrote “This explains why some of our “esteemed” publications have decided to become Government mouthpieces, printing only government press handouts. The price of independent reportage is to be evicted without due process.” Whereas Former J&K CM and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti wrote on Twitter, “Anuradha was one of the few local newspaper editors in J&K who stood upto GOIs illegal & disruptive actions in the state. Shutting down her office in Srinagar is straight out of BJPs vendetta playbook to settle scores with those who dare to disagree.” It’s always good to see the ones who took away the Right to Life from Kashmiri Pandits now giving lectures about Freedom of the Press.
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