India’s National Investigation Agency raided the offices of the Greater Kashmir local newspaper and the residence of AFP news agency journalist Parvaiz Bukhari last year. And state authorities sealed the offices of the oldest English daily in the region, the Kashmir Times, for its critical reportage. Kashmiri photojournalist Masrat Zahra and columnist Gowhar Geelani were charged in April last year under the anti-terror law for “indulging in unlawful activities” through posts on social media. Journalist Auqib Javeed was allegedly slapped at a police station in September after being summoned for writing a story about the cyber cell of the police intimidating Twitter users. The police have beaten other journalists while they are on reporting assignments, and confiscated their phones and cameras. The news editor of The Kashmiriyat website, Qazi Shibli, was arrested in August 2019 for tweets in which he posted an official order regarding the deployment of additional paramilitary troopers across Jammu and Kashmir. Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, a journalist and the publisher of Urdu-language newspaper Daily Afaaq from Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, was arrested in June 2019 on charges under the now lapsed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1985.
Haris Zargar, 'New hit on Indian independent media and free press', New Frame
