Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) and Kashmir Working Journalists Association on Tuesday took expiation to National Investigation Agency’s definition of journalist detailed in the charge sheet of incarcerated Kashmir photo-journalist Kamran Yousuf. KEG, an organisation of the editors of the newspapers published in Kashmir, held a “marathon” meeting and come up with a statement, strongly reacting to the NIA’s definition that it was “moral duty” of a journalist to cover development activities of government departments which the Kamran had never performed. “If the cops are supposed to define the roles and responsibilities of the journalists, which manage the fourth pillar of democracy, the universities that train thousands of journalists in a year across India must be locked,” the KEG said.
“Re-defining journalism is usually been seen as an effort by totalitarian and dictatorial regimes and not democracies.” It reiterated that Kamran Yousuf has been a news photographer who was freelancing with various media outlets. The editors sought his early release and have insisted that Yousuf requires a fair trial. “It has been a long time since Yousuf’s arrest that the investigators have probed almost all angles of his supposed involvement. So far, nothing has been proved as the charge sheet suggests,” it said, adding, “It is high time that Yousuf is permitted to move out of jail and resume his routine and help his mother, the only relation he has, in surviving honourably. His release will contribute to the strengthening of democracy and right to free speech.
” The KWJA also condemned the continuous incarceration of the photojournalist and said that he was being victimized only for carrying out his professional duties that “somehow embarrassed the government.” “KWJA believes that Kamran’s arrest and framing is aimed only to muzzle the press in Kashmir, and that all charges against him are baseless and motivated,” KWJA said in a statement issued here. At the same time, it also expressed aghast at the efforts of NIA to define the working of a journalist.
“The pathetic standards of journalism that NIA aims to thrust are not just childishly naive but also reflect a dangerous conspiracy to dis-empower the fourth estate,” it said and strongly contest NIA’s definition of journalism and affirmed that it was not the job of a journalist to cover bridge inaugurations or birthday parties of government and political functionaries. “If NIA does not understand the basics that separate PR from journalism, it puts its own investigating capabilities into question.”