When they weren’t traversing the valley for stories and reports, journalists in Kashmir could often be found at the Press Club in Srinagar or at the city’s so-called Media Facilitation Centre. While the former remained a territory of choice for most scribes, the latter became a territory of circumstance.
In a Kashmir subjected to a complete information blockade, journalists faced the twin challenges of information gathering and dissemination. Local journalists fared the worst. In the immediate aftermath of 370 abrogation, when restrictions and uncertainties were the heaviest, local scribes were singled out by the authorities and the forces. While “movement passes” were made available to reporters from the rest of the country with little difficulty, they were denied to entire newsrooms of reputed local newspapers. One Kashmiri journalist was even stopped and asked to turn back by a CRPF jawan because he “looked like Burhan Wani”.
