The Ramban district administration’s instructions, asking local journalists to furnish minute personal and professional details in the name of verification, has irked the scribe community, which has received support from Jammu and Kashmir’s biggest press body. The authorities, however, said the move was aimed at weeding out fake media.
Vernacular scribes from the district told News18 that they felt humiliated when asked to furnish details not only about the organisation they work for but those related to qualification, salary proofs and “other sources of income”. Worse, they said, they were called by police to report at the police station and fill in the form.
“Are we thieves that we will have to again give information? We have done that three times in the last two years. Why is police calling us? Some of us are in this profession for last two decades and many since years,’’ a journalist told News18 from Ramban.
Mohammad Taskeen, a popular radio journalist-commentator and President of the Working Journalists Association, Ramban, said his body has given particulars to the information office on three occasions and those were forwarded to the Directorate of Information that caters to journalistic welfare across Jammu and Kashmir.
“Why are we being asked to share personal details? Our recruiting organisations have those. They recruited us because they found we possess requisite qualifications, skills and capabilities,’’ he said, adding: “We are not government employees.” Asked if this may have been done to check fake news and its peddlers, Taskeen said his body would be happy if the administration is able to crack down on those elements.
Sanjeev Pargwal, who heads Press Club of Jammu, regretted the circular, saying the government should have come through the journalists’ body than issuing this order.
“We are all for curbing fake news and the bad elements who resort to unfair journalism. But these are genuine people out there who highlight issues. We need to respect their spaces,’’ he said.
The senior journalist said he will take up their issue with the higher-ups if those in Ramban wished so. “But we cannot deny social media too. Some contribute very well in highlighting local issues, which get missed by the bigger platforms,’’ he added.
Local journalists who mostly work as stringers with national and regional channel from Ramban – a remote district equidistant from Srinagar and Jammu headquarters but under Jammu province – generally report on local governance issues, frequent road closure and massive infrastructure development that government has embarked upon in connecting Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country through road and rail tunnels.
Taskeen and fellow scribes believe the administration ordered the fresh “verification” after media picked up stories on deficiencies in safety norms of the tunnels, road widening and repairs.
Massarat Islam, District Magistrate, Ramban, said: “We are collecting information from the journalists for the first time based on advisory issued by Director, Information, to verify mediapersons in Ramban district. “This exercise will help us weed out fake media,” he told News 18.
Akshay Labroo, Director, Jammu and Kashmir Information Department, said the government has asked officials in districts not to go ahead with the move. “It is true that we want to curb fake news and those propagating it but we will do it in a proper, fair, cordial and consultative manner,’’ he said, adding: “It is good the issue was brought to the government’s notice.”
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