New Delhi, 6 February 2021: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) welcomes the restoration of 4G internet mobile internet services by the Jammu & Kashmir administration on Friday after nearly a year-and-a-half when it resorted to communication blockade in the region following abrogation of Article

370. At the same time, the IJU urges the administration to exercise caution as the Union fears instructions to the police to ensure compliance and “closely monitor the impact of lifting of restrictions,” the administration could use it selectively, specially against the media and the journalists.

The IJU said that press freedom and the right to freedom of expression had been severely comprised in J&K following the clampdown and that the media particularly had to pay a severe price, with a major tool of communication being denied in this digital age.

In a statement, IJU President and former Member, Press Council of India Geetartha Pathak and Secretary General and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Vice President Sabina Inderjit said that better sense has finally prevailed over the J&K administration and the Union government to restore high speed internet facilities in the region and that this would help the media to carry out its obligation of informing the people for a better informed society. The IJU had impleaded in the Anuradha Bhasin case in the Supreme Court, which had sought lifting of the communication clampdown and restoration of internet facilities as it impacted the freedom of the press.

While the court did not go into specifics of violation of press freedom it directed the J&K administration and Union government to set up a special committee in May 2020. Th government informed the court that it would selectively start 4G services after August 15, following the hearing of a petition filed by Foundation for Media Professionals, seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the Centre and J&K administration for the failure to comply with the top court’s May 11 directions to review restrictions on mobile internet speed in the UT.

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