Srinagar,July 23 (Scoop News) -: Strongly condemning media restrictions in Kashmir, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Ms Mehbooba Mufti has equated the ban on cable operators in Kashmir with that of curbs enforced under martial law and emergency situations.
Talking to a delegation of cable operators of Kashmir that called upon Ms Mehbooba at her Gupkar residence, the PDP president demanded that the government should immediately grant permission to the local cable operators to broadcast news programmes. "If broadcasting of news progarmmes in one part of the state is good, how can it be bad in the other part? The restriction on cable operators not only tentamount to the violation of democratic rights but it has rendered hundereds of youth associated with the business to the verge of unemployment," Ms Mehbooba lamented.
The PDP president said that ban on news programmes means as if martial law has been imposed in the Valley. "With local news channels off-the-air, the government has not only censored media but denied people their constitutional gurantees of freedom of expression,"she observed.
"People of Kashmir can not forget contribution of local cable operators who have run the cable network in Valley while witnessing testing and hard times. So many people associated with this business lost their lives while performing their professional duties," she said.
The PDP president said that instead of supporting and facilitating the cable network business for transparency and dissemination of information in the state, the government seems in denial mode. "At the behest of some vested interests, these cable operators in Kashmir are being intimidated and harrased. Government offices should not be misued for practice of intimidation and censorship," Ms Mehbooba added.
Expressing her full support, Ms Mehbooba assured the agrived cable operators that she will take up their problems with the ministry of information and broadcasting New Delhi inorder to mitigate their sufferings.
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