Six journalists were denied entry into Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium despite the journalists having the requisite passes.
New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India has condemned the arbitrary denial of entry to several senior Jammu and Kashmir journalists into the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium in Srinagar to cover the Republic Day function on 26 January.
On Saturday, six journalists from reputed foreign and local news organisations were denied entry into the stadium by authorities who said there were “adverse reports” against the journalists.
The journalists, however, had the requisite passes to attend the event.
As per reports, the incident prompted journalists to stage a protest in Srinagar. Several other journalists boycotted the event as a sign of protest.
In a statement, the Editors Guild said that it is “shocking that many of them were stopped from entering the stadium to perform their professional duty in spite of their possessing entry passes issued by the state government’s Information Department”.
The Editors Guild of India has issued a statement. pic.twitter.com/WqXniu5Jai
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) January 28, 2019
“Equally deplorable is the state government’s earlier decision to deny entry passes for covering the Republic Day function to many other senior journalists,” it stated.
Calling it an “unprecedented state-sponsored attack on press freedom”, the Guild has demanded that an inquiry be initiated into the incident
“It also seeks an assurance from the government that such reprehensible acts would not be repeated. If necessary, a fool-proof and non-discriminatory system of issuing entry passes to journalists to help them perform their professional duty in high-security areas must be introduced at the earliest,” the statement read.
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