Srinagar: Most of the leading newspapers in the Kashmir valley printed a blank front page on Sunday as a mark of protest against the “continued denial and unexplained halt to the rightful disbursal of government advertisements” to two newspapers by the state government.
The Kashmir Editors’ Guild (KEG) said that the state government has stopped advertisements to Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader, underlining that ‘The enigmatic decision is directly hitting the constitutional guarantees that encourage free media in democratic societies,” the KEG had said.
“We had requested the authorities to at least offer us a reason for why the advertisements were stopped, without intimation and reason. We have not been given an iota of reason, so far.”
The ban, the KEG said, has deprived the two publications of the rightful revenue stream and has started hurting the state and status of journalism in Kashmir. “It was done at a time when the newspapers were busy drafting capital intensive plans for effective coverage of the elections about to be announced by the Election Commission of India.”
As a mark of protest, most of the newspapers, both English and Urdu, published a blank front page on Sunday and carried a message from the KEG: “In protest against the unexplained denial of government advertisements to Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader.”
The KEG said that the decision to print the blank front page was taken on Saturday and it was against the government’s move to scuttle the media in Kashmir.
Members of the KEG also held a protest at the Press Club here on Sunday afternoon against the government decision.
