ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Senior journalist and analyst Khawaja A. Mateen has strongly reacted to the FIR filed by Action Committee core member Shaukat Nawaz Mir against ‘Kashmir Digital’ anchor Mujtaba Butt.
Khawaja A. Mateen says that Shaukat Nawaz Mir reached the police station with a group to get a case registered against Mujtaba Butt. He said that Mujtaba Butt’s only “crime” is that he had interviewed Hurriyat leader Abdul Hameed Lone in the past few days, in which Abdul Hameed Lone made serious allegations against Shaukat Nawaz Mir.
Analyst Khawaja A. Mateen raised the question of what is the fault of the host (anchor) in this matter? He said that the job of a journalist is to conduct interviews, and if Shaukat Nawaz Mir had any objection to Abdul Hameed Lone’s statement, he would have sat in Mujtaba Butt’s program and answered these questions and presented his position.
Khawaja A. Mateen further said that Shaukat Nawaz Mir had earlier termed an FIR against him as a restriction on freedom of expression, but now he himself is filing an application at the police station against a journalist. He bluntly said that taking a group to put pressure on the police against a journalist is a “reprehensible act,” and he, as a journalist, strongly condemns this act.
He said that Shaukat Nawaz Mir should take legal action against the Hurriyat leader who made the allegations, and not against the journalist who had only performed his professional duty.
Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) member Shaukat Nawaz Mir had moved to file a first information report (FIR) against Kashmir Digital anchorperson Muhammad Mujtaba Butt on charges of defamation, which the anchorperson has categorically dismissed.
According to details, the FIR alleges that defamatory content was aired or disseminated. He was referring to the recent podcast with Hurriyat Leader and rights activist Abdul Hameed Lone, which was posted on Kashmir Digital.
In response, Mujtaba Butt released a video statement addressing the allegations and strongly reacted to the application filed in the Secretariat Police Station, Muzaffarabad.
In his message, he stated that the matter should now be settled in court and emphasized that claims attributed to Abdul Hameed Lone would have to be proven either true or false through legal proceedings.
