After Kannan Gopinathan, Karnataka IAS Officer Sasikanth Senthil Resigns // Kashmir’s Information Blockade: Report by the Network of Women in Media & the Free Speech Collective

Just days after IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan’s resignation, Deputy Commissioner of Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district Sasikant Senthil has also tendered his resignation from the IAS. 
In a statement, he said that it was “unethical” for him to continue as a civil servant when the “fundamental building blocks of our diverse democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner”, according to The News MinuteThe coming days, he said, will present “extremely difficult challenges to the basic fabric of our nation and that I would be better off outside the IAS to continue with my work at making life better for all”. He assumed charge as Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district in June 2017, according to The Hindu.

IAS Officer Kannan Gopinathan Resigns Over Denial Of Fundamental Rights To People In Kashmir // 'It Felt Like George Orwell's 1984': Mehbooba Mufti’s Daughter Iltija

In August, Gopinathan, who was the secretary, power department of the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, had submitted resignation to the Home Ministry. He had cited denial of “freedom of expression” to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He said that more than the scrapping of special status under Article 370 “the lack of response” to it was more upsetting to him, PTI reported. The Kerala-born Gopinathan had been asked by the government to resume duty and continue to work till his resignation was accepted...source

September 4, 2019: A month after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, on August 5, 2019, the continuing shutdown of communication in the Kashmir valley has resulted in the throttling of independent media.

Laxmi Murthy and Geeta Seshu, a two-member team from the Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) and the Free Speech Collective (FSC), spent five days in the Valley between August 30 and September 3, 2019 to determine the impact of the severe crackdown on communication on the media in Kashmir. The team spoke to more than 70 journalists, correspondents and editors of newspapers and news-sites in Srinagar and South Kashmir, members of the local administration and citizens.
In this, the latest and most intense phase in the ongoing conflict on Kashmir, the government of India has pulled out all the stops - political, legislative, militaristic and punitive. No other democratic government has imposed a communication blockade of this scale and proportion in Kashmir. 

What are the implications of these measures for freedom of expression and for media freedom in Kashmir? Our examination revealed a grim and despairing picture of the media in Kashmir, fighting for survival against the most incredible of odds, as it works in the shadow of security forces in one of the most highly militarised zones of the world and a myriad government controls... read more:
http://nwmindia.org/component/k2/news-behind-the-barbed-wire-kashmir-s-information-blockade-2

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