New Delhi, April 03 (KPN): India continues to detain Kashmiri journalist Irfan Meraj despite several journalists\u2019 and rights bodies and prominent activists, along with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, have expressed concern over his arrest by the New Delhi\u2019s-led National Investigation Agency on March 20.<\/p>\n
The UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor tweeted deep concern over Meraj\u2019s incarceration and called for his release.<\/p>\n
Among journalists\u2019 collectives, the Press Club of India, Editors Guild of India and the Journalist Federation of Kashmir also criticised the action.<\/p>\n
\u201cEGI is deeply concerned about the excessive use of UAPA against journalists, most recently, in the case of the arrest of Irfan Mehraj, a Kashmir-based journalist, by the NIA. The Guild urges the state administration to respect democratic values,\u201d EGI said.<\/p>\n
EGI also said that Meraj\u2019s arrest continues a trend in Kashmir of Indian forces arresting journalists because of their critical reporting of the establishment. \u201cThese include journalists Aasif Sultan, Sajad Gul, and Fahad Shah. The space for media freedom has progressively eroded in Kashmir,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arrest of Kashmiri journalist Irfan Meraj under terror charges is a travesty. The arrest is yet another instance of the long-drawn repression of human rights and the crackdown on media freedoms and civil society in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. The stifling of the rights to freedom of expression and association continue unabated in Kashmir,\u201d Amnesty International said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuman rights defenders such as Irfan Meraj should be encouraged and protected, not persecuted,\u201d Aakar Patel, the chair of board at Amnesty International India, said.<\/p>\n
The PCI called the imposition of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act on a journalist a reflection of the \u201cviolation of freedom of speech and expression.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, April 03 (KPN): India continues to detain Kashmiri journalist Irfan Meraj despite several journalists\u2019 and rights bodies and prominent activists, along with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, have expressed concern over his arrest by the New Delhi\u2019s-led National Investigation Agency on March 20. The UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,36,40],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-kashmir","9":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22784,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22782\/revisions\/22784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}