Squeezing the Media in Kashmir :

On 12 October Mail Today carried a story on page 3 that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had last August sent a communication to 30 odd union ministries and agencies, including public sector units, asking them to stop issuing all advertisements to ﬁve newspapers of J&K (Kashmir Times, Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir, Buland Kashmir and Ethlaat). It quotes a ministry ofﬁcial as saying “The (home) ministry has decided that newspapers with anti-national agenda will not be given any government support.

On 12 October Mail Today carried a story on page 3 that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had last August sent a communication to 30 odd union ministries and agencies, including public sector units, asking them to stop issuing all advertisements to ﬁve newspapers of J&K (Kashmir Times, Greater Kashmir, Rising Kashmir, Buland Kashmir and Ethlaat). It quotes a ministry ofﬁcial as saying “The (home) ministry has decided that newspapers with anti-national agenda will not be given any government support. If these newspapers change their attitude the ministry can reconsider its decision.”

It is known that newspapers have strict instructions from the police department in J&K which obliges them not to carry news of any “separatist” leader on their front page and if the news appears on an inside page its length is restricted to a column and a half.