06-24-2007, 03:53 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>J&K cops seek info on scribes</b>
http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftn...on-scribes.aspx
By Yusuf Jameel
Srinagar, June 23: The police is gathering information on Kashmir-based journalists, both correspondents of various national and international media organisations and those associated with the local press.
Sleuths from the local police have been busy the past week verifying the antecedents of journalists here, including obtaining information regarding their sources of income. They are even seeking their bank account numbers although revealing them has been made optional, apparently in view of the law that forbids forcible disclosures of banking details unless a competent authority, like a court, issues a direction.
The campaign was launched following a letter despatched by a senior police officer early this month to all Valley police stations asking them to obtain information on journalists living in or working from their area of jurisdiction, their family history and strength, academic record, sources of income, bank account numbers and the numbers of their dependants and beneficiaries.
Separately, the sleuths are also obtaining information about orphanages, which have grown in number with more and more people falling prey to violence in Jammu and Kashmir.
The police is also learnt to be poring over the lifestyles of Kashmir-based journalists and functionaries of NGOs that run orphanages as some of them are "rags to riches" stories.
A senior police officer said the exercise being carried out by his department is "part of routine policing." Another officer said, "We must know who is doing what and, in particular, it is important for the police department to know that the very set of people we are supposed to trust are not involved in any adverse activity." The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that other professionals, like attorneys and doctors, would soon be included in the scanning exercise.
The print and electronic media are booming in Jammu and Kashmir. Over the past one year, each month has seen the emergence of two to three new English and vernacular newspapers, both daily and weekly, in the state. At present as many 135 dailies and 171 weeklies are published from Jammu and Kashmir, mainly from Srinagar and Jammu. Half-a-dozen local cable TV channels also beam out programmes, some of them round-the-clock.
On the other hand, almost all major national newspapers, news agencies, private TV channels and other media organisations, various international news agencies, global newspapers and periodicals and news television networks have correspondents or stringers working in the state. The newspapers are flourishing because the rate of literacy, and the overall interest in all kind of news besides religious discourses, are on the rise, particularly among the younger generation.
Though the boom has produced many proficient journalists who have won national and international awards, it is embarrassing for them and their well-meaning senior colleagues that some newspapers have either been launched at the behest of intelligence agencies working on the other side of the Line of Control, or that they accept financial support from them, or from one key player or the other in the Kashmiri imbroglio.
Non-professionals, racketeers, land and liquor mafias (in the case of Jammu) and other elements too have joined in.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Please help J&K police providing details of those based in US or UK.
http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftn...on-scribes.aspx
By Yusuf Jameel
Srinagar, June 23: The police is gathering information on Kashmir-based journalists, both correspondents of various national and international media organisations and those associated with the local press.
Sleuths from the local police have been busy the past week verifying the antecedents of journalists here, including obtaining information regarding their sources of income. They are even seeking their bank account numbers although revealing them has been made optional, apparently in view of the law that forbids forcible disclosures of banking details unless a competent authority, like a court, issues a direction.
The campaign was launched following a letter despatched by a senior police officer early this month to all Valley police stations asking them to obtain information on journalists living in or working from their area of jurisdiction, their family history and strength, academic record, sources of income, bank account numbers and the numbers of their dependants and beneficiaries.
Separately, the sleuths are also obtaining information about orphanages, which have grown in number with more and more people falling prey to violence in Jammu and Kashmir.
The police is also learnt to be poring over the lifestyles of Kashmir-based journalists and functionaries of NGOs that run orphanages as some of them are "rags to riches" stories.
A senior police officer said the exercise being carried out by his department is "part of routine policing." Another officer said, "We must know who is doing what and, in particular, it is important for the police department to know that the very set of people we are supposed to trust are not involved in any adverse activity." The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that other professionals, like attorneys and doctors, would soon be included in the scanning exercise.
The print and electronic media are booming in Jammu and Kashmir. Over the past one year, each month has seen the emergence of two to three new English and vernacular newspapers, both daily and weekly, in the state. At present as many 135 dailies and 171 weeklies are published from Jammu and Kashmir, mainly from Srinagar and Jammu. Half-a-dozen local cable TV channels also beam out programmes, some of them round-the-clock.
On the other hand, almost all major national newspapers, news agencies, private TV channels and other media organisations, various international news agencies, global newspapers and periodicals and news television networks have correspondents or stringers working in the state. The newspapers are flourishing because the rate of literacy, and the overall interest in all kind of news besides religious discourses, are on the rise, particularly among the younger generation.
Though the boom has produced many proficient journalists who have won national and international awards, it is embarrassing for them and their well-meaning senior colleagues that some newspapers have either been launched at the behest of intelligence agencies working on the other side of the Line of Control, or that they accept financial support from them, or from one key player or the other in the Kashmiri imbroglio.
Non-professionals, racketeers, land and liquor mafias (in the case of Jammu) and other elements too have joined in.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Please help J&K police providing details of those based in US or UK.