Media in Jammu and Kashmir comprises a diverse landscape of print, electronic and digital media outlets. The region is served by a variety of newspapers, television channels, radio stations, and online news platforms, reflecting the cultural and linguistic diversity of the area.
Various books have been authored about Jammu and Kashmir, with topics spanning the literature, culture, and notable figures such as Lal Ded and Nund Rishi. The main languages used for communication in the region include Kashmiri, Urdu, Pahari, Gojri, Dogri, Punjabi and English.
History
Early years
The early history of media in Jammu and Kashmir is characterized by the establishment of printing presses in the 19th century. Notably, in 1858, during the Dogra rule, the first printing press, Vidya Vilas Press, was acquired for the purpose of printing official documents in Jammu. This marked a significant advancement in communication within the region.
Conflict and Media
The conflict in Jammu and Kashmir has had a profound impact on media operations. Journalists and media outlets have faced numerous challenges and instances of censorship. Reporting on sensitive issues related to the conflict has often been met with threats and restrictions.
Types of Media
Print Media
Prominent newspapers and magazines play a crucial role in Jammu and Kashmir’s media landscape. ‘Greater Kashmir and Rising Kashmir are among the notable publications with substantial readership and influence. These publications serve as important sources of news and information within the region.
Major periodicals in Jammu and Kashmir include Greater Kashmir, Kashmir Observer, Rising Kashmir, Kashmir Times, Srinagar Jang, Aftab, Daily Excelsior, Elite Kashmir and Kashmir Monitor. Kashmir Pen Mushtaq Bala
News Agencies of Kashmir
Kashmir News observer (KNO), Global News Service (GNS), Kashmir News Bureau (KNB) Current News Service (CNS) and Asian News International. A Press Council of India report in 2017 titled “Media and Media Scenario of J&K” in 2017 stated that newspapers and periodical approved by the government of Jammu and Kashmir in which government-sponsored advertisements are released is 467, with 146 of them being on the DAVP panel.
Broadcast Media
Radio and television have been integral to disseminating information in Jammu and Kashmir. Radio Kashmir, a state-run radio station, has been a significant source of news and entertainment. Additionally, private television channels have emerged to provide diverse programming to the region’s residents.
Radio stations in Jammu and Kashmir include “AIR Srinagar”, “AIR Jammu” and “Radio Sharda”. Radio Jammu Kashmir was the first broadcasting centre of Jammu and Kashmir, coming into existence on 1 December 1947. Radio Sharda, a worldwide community radio service for Kashmiri Pandits, was started by Ramesh Hangloo. FM Tadka 95.0, BIG FM 92.7, Radio Mirchi and Red FM 93.5 are private FM radio stations in Jammu city and Srinagar.
Television
DD Kashir is major television channel of J&K UT. Most watched kashmiri programme was Kus Bani Koshur Karorpaet. Popular private television channels are News18 Urdu and Gulistan News.
Cinema and music
Kashmiri cinema and Dogri cinema are major film and music industries in Jammu and Kashmir. Music companies like KDMJAMMU, Music Tape Industry (MTI) Studios, Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL) and T-Series Kashmiri Music promote traditional Kashmiri folk music like Chakri, Henzae, Wanvun, Ladishah, Bacha Nagma, Dumhal, Dogri Bhakh, Gojri music and top singers like Raj Begum, Vibha Saraf, Qazi Touqeer, Shameem Dev Azad, Nargis Khatoon Bushra & Uzma (twins), Mehmeet Syed, Sakeena Reshi, Pragaash, Shabnam Naz, Shameema Akhtar, Sheela Zargar, Shazia Bashir, Zahida Taranum, MC Kash. During the Kashmir conflict following 1989, cinema halls were closed. Kashmiri militants said that films in movie halls were “un-islamic” while the Indian Army used movie halls as garrisons. In 1999 attempts were made to reopen the movie halls, but after a series of attacks, soon they were shut again. The movie hall “Neelam” has been used by the CRPF till as recent as July 2018. During the “Kashmir World Film Festival” in 2017, Naeem Akhtar, a Kashmiri politician, talked about reopening of the cinema halls. Kashmir’s first multiplex is under construction as of June 2020 while Jammu division has multiple multiplexes. Several multiplex cinemas are:
- MovieTime Cinemas in Palm Island Mall, Jammu.
- PVR Cinemas, KC Jammu.
- Wave Cinemas, Jammu.
- Apsara Multiplex, Jammu
- AMR Multiplex, Katra
- Moonlight Cineplex, Kathua
- Raj Theatre, Udhampur
Digital Media
The rise of digital media platforms has transformed the media landscape in Jammu and Kashmir. Online news portals like Free Press Kashmir, The Chenab Times, The Dispatch, The Kashmir Pulse and The Kashmir Walla have gained prominence. Social media platforms like Kashmir Weather have also played a pivotal role in information dissemination and shaping public opinion.
Freedom of Press
Press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir has faced challenges and restrictions. Journalists and media organizations have encountered legal and political pressures, impacting their ability to report freely and independently. Instances of censorship and intimidation have been reported.
Media issues in Jammu and Kashmir
19 journalists have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990. The region has seen various prohibitive measures against the media.
Media coverage of the Kashmir conflict
A study by Chindu Sreedharan concluded the dominance of “anti-peace news” in the overall coverage of Kashmir suggesting that the press in India and Pakistan has a counterproductive role in the Kashmir issue and that the “coverage was vigorously government-led and intensely ‘negative'”. A study in the Pakistan Journal of History and Culture found that newspapers of both countries (India and Pakistan) were “setting the agenda on Kashmir issue positively in the light of foreign policy of their respective country”.
A Reuters Institute Fellowship paper titled “Media Propaganda and the Kashmir Dispute: A Case Study of the Kashmir Floods” based on an analysis of the New Delhi-based media’s coverage of the 2014 floods in Kashmir, the study concludes that “its reporting was biased and subjective”. Almost all the coverage focused on the rescue efforts of the Indian armed forces, while the contribution made by local volunteers in providing relief was ignored. The paper established that The Times of India devoted 57% of its coverage “specifically to the army’s relief efforts” while NDTV focused 97% of its content “on the army and government’s role in the crisis”.
Attacks on journalists in the Kashmir conflict
Since 1990, the total number of journalists who have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir is 19.
The first major killing in Jammu and Kashmir by militants was of Lassa Kaul, the Director of Srinagar Doordarshan in February 1990, outside his house in Bemina. This was followed by the killing of P.N. Handoo of the State Information Department. Militant and terrorist groups also “imposed a ban on the distribution of national newspapers and Kashmir Times and Daily Excelsior, both published in English from Jammu”. Ghulam Muhammad Lone and his eight year old son were killed in 1994 by gunmen. On 10 August 2000, a grenade killed seven journalists including Pradeep Bhatia, a journalist from Hindustan Times. Asiya Jeelani, a print reporter, died after a van in a landmine blast in Kupwara. The most recent killing of a journalist, Shujaat Bukhari, happened in June 2018.
To counter the Pakistani misinformation campaign the Indian central government allocated Rs 430 crore for upgrading and improving Doordarshan and All India Radio for Jammu and Kashmir in 2004.
Media censorship
In 2016, newspaper publications were banned for three days in Kashmir.
On 24 August 2017, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology sent a letter to Twitter under Section 69A of the IT Act to censor content. Following this Twitter users received official legal complaints from Twitter.
A Press Council of India report in 2017 titled “Media and Media Scenario of J&K” in 2017 states that “journalists in Kashmir have to manage the reality of walking on the tightrope amidst the threats of gun and political arm-twisting”. Security forces consider photojournalists as “instigating protestors”, while the protestors call them “government agents”.
Laxmi Murthy and Geeta Seshu of Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), in their 2019 report titled, ‘News behind the barbed wire”, based on field observation after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which provided special status to the erstwhile state of J&K, expressed that, “in the absence of reportage from the ground, the government’s influence of the narrative of normalcy is near total. Its official proclamations of the creation of a ‘Naya Kashmir’ have become vociferous. In contrast, there is a deafening silence and invisibilisation of voices from Kashmir expressing alienation, anger and disillusionment at perceived breach of trust. The government’s control of communication processes is intrinsically undemocratic and harmful, as it privileges the voices of authority and weakens those who speak truth to power.”
The Media Policy 2020 of the Jammu and Kashmir has also been criticised for allegedly “monopolising the flow of information by the state”. Press Council of India was particularly alarmed by the provisions of ‘fake news’ in the media policy, which it said, while taking suo-moto cognisance of the matter, “interferes with the free functioning of the press.”
On 20 August 2023, the independent news outlet The Kashmir Walla’s website, facebook and X account were blocked without serving notice. as well as the editorial team being evicted from their offices as a result of the ban.
New Media Censorship through frequent Internet bans
Internet shutdowns are quite frequent in Jammu and Kashmir. The conflict-ridden region of Jammu and Kashmir in India saw five internet shutdowns until February 2021. In 2020, this number was 115. Since 2012, the region has been subject to 300 internet shutdowns, highest in the country.
In 2019, Internet was also suspended all across Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the revocation of Article 370. While the ban on internet wasn’t lifted in the Kashmir valley, internet was completely restored in Ladakh. In Jammu the broadband was restored while the high-speed mobile internet services continued to remain suspended.
With the Centre refusing to lift the gag on internet services journalists in Kashmir valley had no option but to wait their turn at the media facilitation centre set up especially for them. Even then, Winter’s first snowfall in Srinagar cost journalists in Kashmir one of their most essential means of connecting with the rest of the world as the internet stopped working due to a fibre cut in the lease line at the media facilitation centre in Kashmir Valley.
The Jammu and Kashmir government finally restored 4G mobile Internet services in entire J&K after one and a half year in February, 2021.
Arrest of journalists
Kamran Yousuf, a freelance Kashmiri photojournalist, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 5 September 2017 and was released on bail on 14 March 2018. During this time, he was lodged in the Tihar Jail, New Delhi. The bail petition was opposed by the NIA. In an earlier case, Dawn reported that on 19 August 2011, Showkat Shafi, a freelance photojournalist was “beaten by government forces” and then taken to the nearest police station. After his release, he had to be hospitalised.
On 27 August 2018, Asif Sultan, assistant editor and reporter with the magazine Kashmir Narrator, was detained during a nocturnal raid from his home in Batamaloo. He was accused of ‘harboring militants’, murder, attempt to murder and other crimes. and subsequently booked under UAPA and later PSA. The long incarcerated Asif Sultan, on 27 August 2023 completed five years in jail. He is currently lodged at Uttar Pradesh jail.
On 27 July 2019, Qazi Shibli, a journalist and editor of The Kashmiriyat, was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police. He was questioned about his article on the deployment of new Indian troops in the region. Shibli was detained under the PSA. On 9 August he was transferred to Bareilly District Prison in Uttar Pradesh. On 13 April 2020, he was released from prison. On 30 July 2020, he was summoned by Jammu and Kashmir Cyber Police to appear next day at Srinagar Police Station. On 31 July 2020, he was transferred to Shergarh Police Station. On 3 August 2020, he was transferred to Srinagar Central Prison. He was booked under 107 CRPC. After eighteen days, on 17 August, he was released.
On January 5, 2022, authorities detained sajad Ahmad Dar alias Sajad Gul, a trainee reporter at The Kashmir Walla, from his home in the northern Bandipora district, in relation to a video he posted on X (formerly twitter), which was removed, shows women protesting the killing of a local militant commander. His family asserted that Gul was arrested by the Indian army. However, in January, Emron Musavi, an army spokesperson, told CPJ that Gul was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police. He spent 11 days locked up before a local court granted him bail. On January 16, 2022, authorities charged him in a new case under the stringent Public Safety Act. and was lodged in Central Jail agra. On November 9, 2023, Jammu and kashmir High Court quashed his detention, termed it “an abuse of the preventive law” by detaining authority and court ruled that there was no specific allegation against Dar The court Order was made public on November 18, 2023, thus Sajad languished in detention for about 660 days
On February 4, 2022, Fahad Shah, founder-editor of The Kashmir Walla newspaper was arrested under anti-terror UAPA, for allegedly publishing “anti-national content.” After about 21 months in Kot Bhalwal Jail, on November 17, 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court dismissed charges under various sections of UAPA against Shah.
On 20 March 2023, Irfan Mehraj, founding editor of Wande Magazine, human rights activist and journalist, was arrested in Srinagar by the NIA under several charges including UAPA. NIA accused him of working at the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a human rights organization known for documenting human rights violations committed by authorities in Kashmir. He is lodged in Delhi jail.
Assault on Kashmiri Journalists
The two video journalists, Qayoom Khan and Qisar Mir, who were working for CNN-News 18 and TV9 were allegedly stopped by the police on March 4 in Pulwama. Their camera and two mobile phones were also taken away and returned to them after almost five hours.
On 26 May 2020 Umer Rashid, a Journalist from District Shopian and his colleague was beaten by police near Newa area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama when they were returning from their Srinagar Office the move was widely condemned by journalists and civil society members
Books
Writers produce books “documenting everything (in Jammu and Kashmir) from folklore to political happenings, to the sufferings of people”. A number of young writers are seen. Yayavar is annual Literary Festival of Jammu Division. Gulshan Books is the only bookshop-library on a lake in Jammu and Kashmir. Famous dogri writers are Ghulam Nabi Khayal, Late Akhtar Mohiudin, Jitendra Udhampuri and Champa Sharma while Kashmiri writers are Mahjoor, Amin Kamil, Ghulam Nabi Gowhar, Shahnaz Bashir, and Ghulam Nabi Firaq.
Notable Journalists
Jammu and Kashmir has produced several prominent journalists and media personalities. These individuals have made significant contributions to journalism and reporting from the region, often working under challenging conditions.
List of notable Journalists
- Anzer Ayoob, journalist and author
- Shujaat Bukhari
- Sajjad Haider, journalist and editor of Kashmir Observer
- Yusuf Jameel, veteran Kashmiri journalist known for his coverage of Kashmir conflict.
- Altaf Qadri, photojournalist working with the Associated Press.
- Nidhi Razdan, newscaster
- Qazi Shibli, journalist and editor of The Kashmiryat.
- Asif Sultan, journalist and editor in chief of Kashmir Narrator
- Kamran Yousuf, photojournalist
- Masrat Zahra, freelance photojournalist.
- Fahad Shah, journalist, founder and editor of The Kashmir Walla.