Pic credit: Twitter
Srinagar, July 21, 2019: Journalists held demonstration at the Kashmir Press Club on Saturday, to protest against a Times of India report which they said was baseless and misleading.
The journalists said the news story defamed the journalist fraternity of Kashmir by labelling them as jihadis. They demanded the report be taken down and ToI tenders an apology.
In the report, ToI reporter M Salim Pandit quoting official sources writes that Mohammad Hayat Bhat owner-cum-editor of a local English newspaper, “Kashmir Reader”, appeared at the NIA’s Delhi headquarters on Tuesday for questioning in connection with a terror funding case.
The ToI news story further says a senior NIA official claimed Bhat has “close connections” to terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and has hired known “jihadi journalists” to write for his newspaper, adding that these “jihadi journalists” are now executive members of the Kashmir Press.
The ToI report also claims, quoting sources, that NIA is examining the creation of a group called “Kashmir Editors’ Guild” by a few “editors” as it fears that the guild is the creation of an ISI media cell based in Rawalpindi.