Harassment – Journalists

The NIA, which is tasked with combatting terrorism, summoned Javeed from Srinagar for questioning at the agency’s New Delhi headquarters where they interrogated him for three consecutive days–July 14 through July 16– and barred his lawyer from attending the questioning, according to Sajjad Haider, Javeed’s editor at the Kashmir Observer. Javeed, who is on staff at the Kashmir Observer, told CPJ that he was questioned about an interview with a separatist leader he did as a freelancer for the Sunday magazine insert in Greater Kashmir.

The agency today sent notice to Greater Kashmir, which published the interview in January 2018, directing the editor to provide the unedited version of the interview by tomorrow, according to a copy of the NIA notice seen by CPJ. The notice did not specify what would happen if the newspaper does not comply, but said the NIA was justified in requesting the full interview under the Indian Evidence Act at the Code of Criminal Procedure.

“Questioning Auqib Javeed without a lawyer and trying to force Greater Kashmir to submit raw reporting material is a serious attack on press freedom in the turbulent state of Jammu and Kashmir,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator in Washington, D.C. “These attempts to intimidate journalists will only force the flow of news and information to grind to a halt.”