The Editors Guild of India has termed police directives relating to live coverage of gun battles in India’s Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir as “draconian” and “undemocratic”, while seeking its withdrawal.

The Kashmir Police have asked journalists to refrain from live coverage of gun battles in Kashmir, a move seen by critics as a measure to further suppress freedom of the press in the restive Himalayan region, where the present government led by Narendra Modi brought in sweeping changes in the previous state’s semi-autonomous status late 2019.

In a recent advisory to the media, Kashmir Police chief Vijay Kumar set out new guidelines for journalists covering the region’s insurgency. “Do not interfere in the professional and bona fide duty of police and security forces at the encounter site. No operational content should be carried, which is likely to incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promotes anti-national sentiment,” Kumar said.

“Freedom of speech and expression is subject to reasonable restrictions that should not violate other people’s right to life … or putting national security in jeopardy,” he had added.

Commenting on the police advisory the EGI in a statement said, “Nothing can be further from the truth. Visibly, the police is giving an impression of trying to maintain peace by attempting to control the fallout of violence…but what is being instead done is an attempt by the security forces to escape from any kind of media scrutiny about the flow of events behind the violence.”

Terming the move “draconian”, the editors’ body, which does not have much legal teeth, said the “advisory must be withdrawn immediately”.

However, big media houses or TV news channels are yet to comment on the Kashmir Police media advisory.