Internet Control

One has to wait, sometimes for hours, to access the email. The conference hall at a local hotel in Srinagar is packed with journalists. Four computers in a corner are always bordered by eager reporters, flash drives at the ready. Two of these systems are mostly occupied by government information department officials. These four computers are the only means for journalists in Kashmir to access the internet to send stories and receive information about the world outside.

Some organisations even sent journalists to the Valley in search of their Kashmir-based reporters. Some went back unsuccessfully and filed their reports in Delhi. It took the government a week to put up a ‘media facilitation centre’ from where journalists could access internet and make phone calls.

“It is very repressive,” says senior journalist Naseer Ganai. “It is easy to board a flight and reach Delhi than to access email at the facilitation centre. One problem is the number of people who have to use the computers and other is the internet speed,” says Ganai, who reports for Outlook magazine from Kashmir.