Journalists facing threats from terrorists

There is no place for terrorism in any society and GoI has done exceptionally well to put pressure from all sides, so much so that terrorism seems to be in its last leg now. Almost two crore tourists visiting Jammu and Kashmir this year is a testimony of normalcy returning to valley. Successful, incident free, again all time high, Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra this year is another milestone achievement of administration. Celebrations of 75th Independence day in the Kashmir Division and open participation of Jubilant Public after decades in Kashmir are good enough indicators of normalcy in the valley. Cross border enemies tried to create panic by selected target killings of outsiders but couldn’t challenge the spirits of locals who vehemently condemned these killings. All local as well as National Newspapers have covered extensively all these things throughout the year which resulted in bumper season of tourism this year and the first snowfall of the year again brought the influx of excited tourists from all over India and this has also been covered by Media Houses prominently. However, all this has not gone well with terrorist masters and ‘Kill the Messenger’ itself is the latest strategy adopted as a dozen of Kashmir based journalists have been named and threatened by terrorists through social media and blog. The cascading effect being five of them resigned, a few shared their resignation letters on social media to publically disassociate from media houses. Social Media is abuzz with total support to these journalists, openly condemning the threat to journalists on vague grounds. Whole media fraternity of Jammu and Kashmir is also standing firmly with these Kashmir based journalists but shockingly there is total silence from all political parties, who otherwise always want the front page coverage, at this juncture on this issue. It is serious matter and politicians should lead from front, come in support of media to defeat the nefarious designs of enemy on this front also. Media has always done unbiased reporting, faced the brunt, paid the price, but any such kind of tactics will not work, neither in the past it worked despite ghastly killings, nor in future.