Srinagar: Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) on Tuesday termed National Investigation Agency’s definition of journalist detailed in the chargesheet of incarcerated Kashmir photo-journalist Kamran Yousuf, as “totalitarian and dictatorial” act.
KEG, an organisation of the editors of the newspapers published in Kashmir, held a “marathon” meeting and come up with a statement, strongly reacting to the NIA’s definition that it was “moral duty” of a journalist to cover development activities of government departments which the Kamran had “never” performed.
“If the cops are supposed to define the roles and responsibilities of the journalists, which manage the fourth pillar of democracy, the universities that train thousands of journalists in a year across India must be locked,” the KEG said. “Re-defining journalism is usually been seen as an effort by totalitarian and dictatorial regimes and not democracies.”
It reiterated that Kamran Yousuf has been a news photographer who was freelancing with various media outlets. The editors sought his early release and have insisted that Yousuf requires a fair trial. “It has been a long time since Yousuf’s arrest that the investigators have probed almost all angles of his supposed involvement. So far, nothing has been proved as the charge sheet suggests,” it said, adding, “It is high time that Yousuf is permitted to move out of jail and resume his routine and help his mother, the only relation he has, in surviving honourably. His release will contribute to the strengthening of democracy and right to free speech.”
