India lifts ban but Kashmir papers not printing amid unrest

SRINAGAR, India — Authorities lifted a three-day publication ban in India’s portion of Kashmir but newspapers delayed new print runs on Tuesday due to uncertainties about the media restrictions imposed during massive anti-India protests that left dozens of people dead and hundreds injured. Newspapers owners and editors said the Kashmir government had yet to guarantee smooth media operations in the prevailing tense situation. The government made a verbal apology and called the ban a “mistake,” but then authorities “resorted to a propaganda blitzkrieg insisting that there was no ban,” said Masood Hussain, a senior journalist and editor of the English weekly Kashmir Life, after the meeting with others in the local media industry. “It indicates that the government has not changed its press emergency.” He said the editors would review the situation on Wednesday. “Government must own the ban and issue a statement guaranteeing that media operations are not being hampered from the movement of staff, to news gathering, printing and the distribution of the newspapers,” Hussain said. The state government’s political adviser, Amitabh Mattoo, said the decision to temporarily ban newspaper publication was made without the knowledge of the state’s top elected official, Mehbooba Mufti. “Sometimes decisions taken at a local level is not something the highest authority approves of. There was some miscommunication,” he said. “We need to know who took the decision on the ban. We will take action once the crisis is over,” he told New Delhi-based NDTV news channel late Monday. State government spokesman and Education Minister Nayeem Akhtar had said on Friday the ban was aimed at “saving lives and strengthening peace efforts.” Police raided newspaper offices, detained printing press workers and seized tens of thousands of local newspapers. The detained workers have since been freed. In addition to the printing ban, cellular and Internet services were absent and landline phone access limited throughout Kashmir, except in its main city of Srinagar, creating an information void. Hussain, the journalist, said earlier that the communication and information blockade was powering rumors. “People want to know what’s happening around and when we fail to provide news, rumor mill takes over. It doesn’t help anyone,” he said.