5: Episode 5 | I have never faced the problems that I and every journalist faced during this clampdown, says Quratulain Rehbar

Voices from the Lockdown

Episode 5

71st day of communication blockade since August 5

We will be discussing something very important today, something which is crucial to a democratic process - how does one gauge the response of a people to a move by a government if the functioning of the fourth estate, which is supposed to remain representative of the voices of the people, is hampered?

The August 5th announcement to abrogate Article 370 and downgrade Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories came with massive curbs - all of Kashmir was put under curfew with huge deployment of the armed forces along with a 100% clampdown on communication - no landlines, no mobiles services, no internet. While we had reports coming from Ladakh and Jammu about responses of people there, there were none from Kashmir.

For the longest time, nobody knew what was happening in Kashmir. Families outside of Kashmir couldn’t contact people in Kashmir, within Kashmir people couldn’t contact each other. Local journalists had no way of updating thier websites or even sending reports to Indian or international media agencies. For close to three weeks, Kashmiri journalists had to send information through pen drives to Delhi. Reports of journalists being stopped from accessing parts of Kashmir and being harmed when they did started to emerge. And then, we were hit by multiple versions of what was happening in Kashmir. Many Indian TV channels started carrying reports of normalcy during primetime while international agencies like BBC and New York times shared reports of unrest, protests and mayhem in Kashmir. All this while most Kashmiri journalists continued to remain cut off.

Journalists organised a protest on October 3, urging the government to revoke the communication blockade and restore access to mobile and internet services. The government had announced that it would restore access to postpaid mobile services on Saturday, which was later pushed to today. As we wait and watch if this in-fact happens today, let us speak to Quratulain Rehbar and Mansoor Peer to understand the difficulties that journalists have been facing while reporting since August 5.