IPI continues to monitor and document the alarming deterioration of press freedom in the region, which has significantly worsened since the Indian government revoked the state’s special status three years ago.
This decline has occurred amid broader attacks on press freedom in India under the government of conservative nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata party has fueled anti-Muslim sentiment.
While the Indian government has always sought to tightly control the media in Kashmir, the situation for independent journalists in the predominantly Muslim region has sharply declined since the government in August 2019 repealed Article 370 and 35a of the Indian Constitution, which gave Jammu and Kashmir significant autonomy. Since then, the region’s independent journalists and media outlets have come under intense pressure, facing arbitrary detention and arrest as well as internet shutdowns, which have prevented them from communicating and publishing their work.