The Kashmir Editors Guild, a body of Valley-based editors, on Friday said the Governor’s administration, has stopped advertisements to the largest circulated local daily, Greater Kashmir, and another daily, Kashmir Reader, “without an formal order.”
“Interestingly, the strangulation bid came at a time when media in general and the Kashmir media in particular is putting up a huge and costly battle with social media set-ups to ensure the truth is cleanly and clearly separated and reported from mass rumour mongering. Kashmir is quite prone to rumours, which routinely overtake facts,” the Guild’s said in a statement.
The statement said the Guild regrets that the administration had stopped government advertisements and had decided “to fight the deliberate strangulation and subversion of the institution of media in the State.”
The Guild has sought the attention of the the Press Council of India and the Editors Guild of India to exercise their legal, ethical and professional mandate to intervene in the issue. “The media in Kashmir is professional and has retained its neutrality even at the cost of lives. It will continue to do so,” said the statement.