Censored at home and barred from travel, Kashmiri journalists persist
Aakash Hassan was scheduled to fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 27 to report on the country’s economic crisis, but he never made it. Although the Kashmiri journalist had completed all the travel formalities needed for a speedy departure, when he reached the immigration counter at the New Delhi International Airport, officials took him to a room and questioned him about his personal and professional life.
After hours of waiting, his passport was stamped “canceled without prejudice,” meaning he would not be allowed to travel abroad that day.
It was a perplexing experience, but not a unique one. A few weeks prior, another Kashmiri journalist, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, was from traveling to Paris to attend a photography exhibition. Other journalists from the region have also been barred from traveling abroad since 2019, when the Indian government abrogated the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir and ramped up media restrictions.
