H.E Sh. Girish Chander Saxena
Governor of Jammu and Kashmir
Srinagar
India

Via Fax: + 91 194 455 320

Vienna, 10 May 2001

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, strongly condemns the beating of a group of journalists by paramilitary soldiers.

According to IPI’s sources, a group of 17 journalists, the majority of them photo-reporters, were attacked by soldiers on 10 May in Kashmir. The journalists were assaulted by troops from the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) while on assignment covering a funeral procession of victims of a bomb attack. Several people were demonstrating the attack – which occurred the previous day near a security camp at Magam in Budgam district of Kashmir, leaving nine people dead – when the BSF troops started to beat them. The journalists were covering the assault on the demonstrators from a distance when the leading officer ordered his troop to attack them.

The soldiers fired their weapons a number of times in the air before they started to hit the journalists with their rifles and truncheons. Reportedly, one journalist with Enadu TV, B Kumar, was also thrown in a nearby river together with several of the other journalists’ cameras. Other equipment was destroyed by the troops as well and the journalists had to be taken to hospital in Srinagar for treatment.

While appreciating statements by the BSF Director General, Gurbachan Jagat, who has asserted that an investigation will be initiated into the matter, IPI wishes to stress the need to establish safe working conditions for journalists covering developments in Kashmir. Journalists that provide reporting from this region have been subjected to a number of violent attacks in the past, including murder. In addition, to take the necessary precautions to prevent attacks like these from occurring in the future, the authorities need to send a strong signal to the various fighting factions and others that attacks on journalists will not be tolerated.

Therefore, IPI urges Your Excellency to ensure that there is a complete investigation into this deplorable attack and that those responsible are brought swiftly to justice. Moreover, we urge you to take the necessary steps to ensure that journalists working in the region can report on events freely and safely.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director