Concerns as Kashmir police ban live media coverage of gunbattles

New police directive prohibits reporters from approaching gun-battle sites and covering ‘law and order’ situations.

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – Journalists and media organisations in Indian-administered Kashmir say they are concerned over a new directive issued by the police prohibiting reporters from approaching the sites of gun-battles and covering “law and order” situations, saying it puts the “national security in jeopardy”. In the directive issued late on Tuesday, the disputed region’s police chief, Inspector General Vijay Kumar, asked media personnel “not to come closer to encounter sites” and “not carry live coverage of any encounter” with armed rebels, who for decades have been fighting for either an independent Kashmir state or its merger with neighbouring Muslim-majority Pakistan. The region’s police said “freedom of speech and expression is subject to reasonable restrictions” and asked the media not to “interfere in professional and bonafide duty” of police and security forces at “encounter” sites – a euphemism for alleged extrajudicial killings by the police.