Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 14: The Sub-Committee of the Press Council of India (PCI) to study media scenario in Jammu & Kashmir arrived here today on a four day visit to the summer capital.
The three member PCI team is headed by Balwinder Singh Jammu, and it comprises Kamal Nain Narang and Syed Raza Hussain Rizvi as its members.
Soon after their arrival, the team visited the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) Srinagar where it held detailed interactions with various delegations of mediapersons including editors, photojournalists and representatives of news agencies. They sought their feedback on the overall media scenario and the difficulties faced by them in discharging their professional duties on day to day basis.
The delegations apprised PCI members of the problems faced by the journalist community post-August 5, 2019 due to clampdown imposed by authorities. They took up several issues pertaining to journalist fraternity especially hardships faced by media fraternity while performing their professional duties post August last year.
Journalists alleged harassment, intimidations at the hands of the Government. Several journalists while carrying out professional duties have been beaten up or harassed by Police and administration in Kashmir. “Even cameras were broken and press cards were disrespected”, they alleged.
The PCI members gave patient hearing to the delegation and assured all issues would be taken up with J&K administration. It also added like other parts of country, PCI will use every effort to put a mechanism in place in J&K for the benefit of journalist fraternity.
The members of Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) including Bashir Manzar, Manzoor Anjum, Masood Hussain, Zahoor Malik and Haroon Rashid and members of Photo-Journalist Association including Syed Muzaffar, Omar Ganaie, Bilal Bahadur and Dar Yasin met PCI delegation and apprised him difficulties faced by journalists on ground.
The PCI team also had an inspection of Media Facilitation Centre set by the Department since August 10, 2019 for facilitation of media fraternity. They were briefed by the officers of the DIPR regarding functioning of the MFC and support/facilities being provided to the media fraternity during the last seven months.
Later, the PCI team visited the offices of some newspapers where they interacted with the staff and enquired about their difficulties.
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