Award-winning Indian journalist Sana Irshad Mattoo was another victim of a method used by the Narendra Modi government to prevent media professionals from exposing sensitive political issues abroad: preventing them from boarding international flights.
Mattoo is a photojournalist for Reuters and won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for recording Covid-19 in India. Despite his prestige, he was prevented from traveling to Europe, where he would participate in events related to his awards.
Banning journalists from traveling abroad is nothing new in India. In March, Rana Ayyub was also critical of Modi, who often deals with judicial harassment. Mumbai airport denied boarding to London.
Indian journalist lives in Kashmir conflict
Judicial and financial harassment of journalists has been a tool used to silence critical media and intimidate journalists in countries with democratically elected rulers, such as in India.
Unlike dictatorial countries such as Vietnam or Myanmar, which use national security laws to put pressure on the press, leaders like Narendra Modi and newly-resigned Filipino Rodrigo Duterte adopt the formula of judicial or financial processes to coerce journalists and financially. choke critical outlets.
Sana Irshad Mattoo is a native of Kashmir, an Indian-administered region that has had major territorial and religious disputes for years as part of the Islamic population seeks to integrate with Pakistan. He lives in Srinagar, the capital of the region.
(2) On Saturday, the 28-year-old Indian journalist announced on Twitter that he was barred from traveling from New Delhi to Paris to attend the opening of a book and photography exhibition. 10 winners of Serendipity. Arles Grant 2020.
As one of the 10 winners of the Serendipity Arles grant 2020, I was going to travel from Delhi to Paris today for a book launch and photography exhibition. I was stopped at the immigration desk in Delhi even though I had a visa to France. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/OoEdBBWNw6
– Sanna Irshad Mattoo (@mattoosanna) July 2, 2022
Despite having a French visa, he was stopped at the airport immigration desk and prevented from boarding the plane by agents.
“I wasn’t given any reason, but they said I couldn’t take an international trip,” he wrote, and shared photos of his passport and ticket with the words “cancelled without prejudice.”
“This is crazy, nothing against me,” Mattoo said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“One of the officers told me that I should check the reason. [o governo da] Kashmir is where the orders come from. I don’t understand why I was stopped [no aeroporto]”, added.
“I was so discouraged. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.”
‘Systematic pattern’ says presence on Indian journalist prevents him from traveling
Sana Irshad Mattoo shared this year’s “Feature Photography” Pulitzer with three other Reuters photographers, contain Danish Siddiq killed in Taliban ambushIn Afghanistan, in 2021.
Professionals have depicted the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on India’s underserved communities.
Pulitzer Prize for feature photography awarded to Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave and the late Danish Siddiqui of Reuters for publishing COVID in India https://t.co/qiFwmaxrLM pic.twitter.com/R0KjZVwx0h
– Reuters (@Reuters) May 9, 2022
The international travel ban has become a common form of judicial harassment in India. The country uses it to intimidate journalists and opposition media.
In recent years, several Indian journalists and activists have been barred from traveling abroad by the country’s authorities.
In April this year, Aakar Patel, the former head of Amnesty International in India, reported that he was unable to travel to the United States due to a lawsuit filed against the organization in 2019. According to Al Jazeera, Patel is an outspoken critic. The Modi government…
A few days ago, famous Indian journalist Rana Ayyub was also banned from boarding a flight to London, where she was supposed to speak at an event on the attacks on women journalists in India. She managed to travel after she appealed to justice.
Media professionals from Kashmir are also frequently targeted by authorities, as reported by CPJ.
Earlier this year, independent journalist Sajad Gul, who was investigating the media situation in the occupied region, was arrested.
Fahad Shah, editor of Kashmir Walla news portal, was also arrested the following month, according to Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
Also Read | Capitol Invasion, Ukrainian Heroes & More: 2022 Press Pulitzer Winners
Organizations advocating freedom of the press criticize Mattoo’s veto
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) stated that “there is no limit to the arbitrariness of the Indian authorities towards journalists”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the government of India “should immediately end the practice of preventing Kashmiri journalists from traveling abroad”:
“The travel bans are part of a pattern of systematic harassment of Kashmiri journalists who, since August 2019, have increasingly faced arbitrary arrests, frivolous lawsuits, threats, physical attacks and assaults.”
The travel bans are part of a systematic pattern for Kashmiri journalists who, since August 2019, are increasingly faced with arbitrary arrests, frivolous lawsuits, threats, physical attacks and raids.https://t.co/wOwmzyWDlO
— CPJ Asia (@CPJAsia) July 2, 2022
Journalists on trial for religious reasons
In addition to the international travel ban, Indian journalists face other types of pressure within the region. Last week, religion was used as a justification for the arrest of Muslim journalist Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of India’s leading information-control site Alt News.
In addition to him, two more journalists have been prosecuted in the country in recent weeks on the same charge of “injuring religious sentiment”.
Zubair is a famous critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has faced further legal disputes over his social media posts classified as anti-Muslim hate speech by the government.
Zubair’s arrest and his accusations against Indian journalists Navika Kumar and Saba Naqvi sparked backlash from international organizations, including Amnesty International and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which view the actions as a form of pressure on the country’s media.
Also Read | India uses ‘religious insult’ as reason to arrest Modi government journalist
Judicial harassment has become a worldwide practice
Judicial harassment also takes other forms in countries with elected officials. The most recent case was with another journalist, Filipino Maria Ressa, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
Two days before President Rodrigo Duterte stepped down, the news site Rappler, run by Ressa, received a notification from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that its license had been revoked.
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source: Noticias
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