India was ranked at 142 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders’ World press freedom index, in both 2020 and 2021. Since 2020, journalists have been arrested while covering the Hathras gangrape, farmers’ protests, caste violence in Uttarakhand, communal violence in Tripura, and now recently for reporting alleged electoral malpractice in UP elections. But the peak of press clampdowns can be seen in Jammu and Kashmir.

In this episode of The Suno India Show, host Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to Anuradha Bhasin. She is the Executive Editor of The Kashmir Times. The Centre had imposed an indefinite communication blockade in the region following the Abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Bhasin’s petition to the Supreme Court was instrumental in partial restoration of communication services in 2020.

Additional reading:

Memory hole: Kashmir news archives vanish | Inquirer
67 journalists arrested, detained, questioned in India in 2020 for their work | The News Minute
India's Press Crackdown: The Silencing of Journalists in Kashmir | The Nation

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Kashmir is ground zero of press freedom clampdowns across India