Censorship of Media in Kashmir
BHOPAL: July 10, 2010: “All India Secular Forum” has criticised the censorship imposed by the State Government of Jammu and Kashmir. To publish, broadcast and telecast news is our fundamental right. Imposing Censorship amounts to depriving the people of their fundamental right of freedom of expression. Censorship was imposed on the country along with proclamation of Emergency on June 25, 1975. But it proved to the counter-productive. If an individual journalist, any newspaper or Radio or TV channel carries any news that jeopardises national interest, it can be dealt with under the existing laws. But to gag the entire media is a deplorable step.
LS Herdenia and Dr. Ram Puniyani, in a statement issued here, have demanded immediate lifting of censorship in J & K so as to allow free flow of information from and to that state. Let the Government rest assured that freedom of expression, by equipping the citizens with a legitimate and peaceful means of airing their grievances, would only aid in controlling the combating the violence that is rocking the state of late.
