Masrat Zahra, an independent photojournalist, has been booked by J&K police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for social media posts deemed “anti-national”; Peerzada Ashiq, a veteran reporter working with The Hindu was also booked for a news item that was eventually proved inaccurate.
The Editors Guild has described the police’s decision to invoke the UAPA, an anti-terrorism law, against Zahra as a “gross misuse of power”, saying it is “an indirect way of intimidating journalists in the rest of the country as well”. The grievance against Ashiq, it added, could have been taken up with his editor.
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