New Delhi: A Kashmiri freelance journalist has alleged that the Doha-based media network Al Jazeera (AJ) deprived him and a fellow reporter of credit for a report that made the merit list for an international award. The report dealt with the lockdown that followed the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir in 2019.
According to a series of tweets posted by Adnan Bhat Monday, a report he co-authored with his colleague Zubair Sofi, also a freelancer, was part of the merit list for the 2020 Human Rights Press Awards (HRPA) in the ‘Breaking News Writing category’. He said he had only discovered it now, adding that AJ had “neither credited nor informed” them about. The portal instead “decided to take credit” for the report, he claimed.
So I just found out that a story I and my colleague Zubair Sofi did for .@AJEnglish during 2019 Kashmir lockdown had been listed as merit winners of 2020 Human Rights Press Awards. But we were neither credited nor informed about it by AJ. Instead they decided to take the credit.
— Adnan Bhat (@Adnanmbhat) February 1, 2021
Bhat, who is based in Srinagar, said he discovered the report had made the HRPA merit list on 30 January, while trying to apply for this year’s awards, whose submission deadline was 1 February.
The HRPA is a not-for-profit organisation based in Hong Kong that seeks to “recognise top rights-related reporting from around Asia”. The HRPA winners for 2020 were announced on 6 May 2020. The merit list includes a report by Bhat and Sofi that was published four days after Article 370 was scrapped on 5 August 2019.
Bhat has been associated with Al Jazeera since 2018.
In a subsequent tweet, Bhat said AJ had reached out to him and claimed they were “concerned” about the repercussions “we might face for having our names on HRPA website”. He dismissed the claim as “beyond absurd”.
just got a response from AJ. And they say, they were concerned for our safety and were worried of repercussion we might face for having our names on HRPA website. But all this while, our byline were on the piece that was published almost 10 months earlier. This is beyond absurd https://t.co/om8DvE3F3a
— Adnan Bhat (@Adnanmbhat) February 1, 2021
Speaking to ThePrint later, Bhat said he had spoken to a few editors at Al Jazeera and was told that he and Sofi would be credited for the report in question.
Reached for comment, the Al Jazeera bureau chief for India, Anmol Saxena, described the incident as an “oversight on our part”, saying “our processes are being reviewed”.
“We at Al Jazeera have looked into the issue. The award in question had to do with the website’s Kashmir coverage spanning multiple stories, not on one specific piece of content. However, the journalists had been commissioned and bylined and should have been included during our submission,” he said. “Having conversed with the journalist concerned, we have already requested the awards body to reflect the contribution of Adnan Bhat and Zubair Sofi on their extraordinary coverage of events in Kashmir.”
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‘Difficult conditions’
When he found out about the merit list, Bhat said in his tweets, he emailed HRPA, but “was told that they had informed an editor at AJ about the discrepancy in the byline of the submitted story and the entrant name”. However, he added, “the editor told the HRPA that ‘we want the news desk’ to be credited”.
Last evening, I emailed HRPA about it and I was told that they had informed an editor at AJ about the discrepancy in the byline of the submitted story and the entrant name. But the editor told them “we want the news desk” to be credited.
— Adnan Bhat (@Adnanmbhat) February 1, 2021
He then described how freelancers working in Kashmir have to take great personal risk for low pay.
During the 2019 Kashmir lockdown, Bhat tweeted, he did five stories for Al Jazeera digital and produced two videos. “This was at a time, when we had no internet access in Kashmir and we had to travel to New Delhi to file stories.”
Speaking to ThePrint, Sofi, an independent journalist who has worked for publications such as NewsClick, TheWire and The Independent and is currently based in Delhi, reiterated the point. He said they would report during the afternoon and then take a flight to Delhi in the evening to file their story.
“Journalists who are working in Kashmir are willing to put their lives at risk to get the story out. Why wouldn’t they want to be recognised? Why wouldn’t I come forward to get credit if I am getting an award? It would have been better if we were asked whether we wanted our names to be mentioned in the award, instead of deciding without consulting us.”
The story he co-authored with Bhat was his third report for Al Jazeera.
This report has been updated with a comment from Al Jazeera
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Unjustness on part of Kashmiri youth and undoubtedly discouraging