DNA Edit: Responsible coverage – It does not pay to sensationalise Kashmir

In a place as sensitive as Kashmir’s Srinagar airport, journalists ought to be more responsible instead of playing the propaganda game. On August 24, reporters travelling with the team of opposition leaders led by Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury, Ghulam Nabi Azad and others, were allegedly manhandled by security personnel at the Srinagar airport. The leaders and the journalists were later asked to return to Delhi from the airport itself. A report filed by a leading TV channel alleged the most blatant untruths about the Kashmir situation, giving a handle to anti-Indian elements, who claim atrocities in the Valley. It is unfair on authorities, who are working overtime to get the situation under control. Journalists alleging “assault” are playing into the hands of those elements who are opposing normalisation of the situation in J&K. 

According to this particular channel, journalists were roughed up because Srinagar is a defence airport and does not permit photography or videography. A particular reporter pointed to scratches on her hand that she received during the scuffle with the police, saying that she was “attacked” by five women personnel. By all neutral accounts, journalists are travelling throughout the Union Territory of J&K, many of them without curfew passes. Security personnel have been asked to be extra polite, so that a semblance of normalcy is restored as quickly as possible. Nearly three weeks after the announcement about Article 370 no longer being applicable, restrictions on communication and the movement of people remain in place, but the administration is slowly, but steadily, lifting curbs. There are foreign journalists based in the Valley, but they are not reporting any illegal restrictions and there is no reason why journalists travelling from Delhi should do so.