MIRPUR (Kashmir English): Like rest parts of the world, the World Press Freedom Day 2025 was also commemorated across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday with the renewal of the pledge to continue supporting the struggle for the safety and security and the freedom of press the world over.
The Day was particularly marked with unanimous demand to the world human rights bodies for the grant of complete freedom to the press the world over especially in the areas like the bleeding Illegally Indian occupied Jammu Kashmir.
They said the freedom of expression was being gagged by over a million of the occupational Indian forces at the gunpoint primarily to suppress the Kashmiris’ struggle for liberation of the motherland from forced and unlawful Indian occupation.
According to recent reports, most of the media houses have not ensured the effective implementation of safety protocols nor the timely provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) to media workers in various parts of the world including IIOJK-like conflict zones.
In AJK, various organizations of media workers and press clubs including Kashmir Press Club Mirpur, Jammu Kashmir Union of Journalists, Central Union of Journalists and Jammu Kashmir Free Media Association reportedly held special events including rallies, seminars and demonstrations primarily to mark the world Press Freedom Day.
Expressing grave concern over the rising incidents of victimization of journalists in occupied Kashmir by the Indian forces, these special congregations vehemently condemned increased restrictions to suppress the voice of media.
Special events on Press Freedom Day
The special ceremonies held in various parts of Azad Jammu Kashmir to observe the day, primarily provided an opportunity to the press to recount their outcomes over the previous years.
In Mirpur, major ceremony was held under the auspices of Kashmir Press Club Mirpur.
Addressing the journalist rally in front of Kashmir Press Club Mirpur, speakers vehemently condemned the registration of cases against several of noted Kashmiri journalists in the disputed Illegally Indian occupied Jammu Kashmir state by the occupational Indian authorities under serious charges.
They termed the Indian occupational forces action as a cowardly act on the part of over a million of the Indian occupational forces besides the Delhi’s installed puppet administration in the IIOJK to gag the true voices of Kashmir through such coercive tactics.
The AJK journalist community leaders warned the suppressive Indian occupational forces and their stooges in Indian Illegally occupied Kashmir that such mean and cowardly acts to suppress the freedom of expression in the bleeding valley of Kashmir could not sustain for a long time.
Speakers recalled that several of the IIOJK working journalists, who have worked with reputed organizations in IIOJK, India and abroad, were booked time and again in the recent past for uploading some Kashmir-related photographs and covering the viewpoint of the Kashmiri martyrs’ families.
The rally called upon the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights to immediately intervene to end the victimization of the Kashmiri journalists by the occupational Indian oppressive forces.
Speakers pointed out that no foreign journalist from print and electronic media or international human rights organization activist was allowed by the Indian occupation forces to visit and cover the everyday tragic incidents of the killing of the innocent Kashmiris by Indian occupying troops in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
