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.
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
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.
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 Minute. The 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.
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/
