The media’s silence on the January 1990 Hindu genocide has been questioned in the past as well. The Kashmir Files has made frank comments about the role of the media, bringing back the question of selective silence of the media. The negligible media coverage of the inhuman atrocities on lakhs of people has not only created a credibility crisis, but also created a situation of social disturbance.
A look at the developments of that period makes it clear that the religious and ideological bias was at work behind the lack of media coverage. There are many such examples which establish that the local media was cooperating with the terrorists.
On 4 January 1990, Aftab, the local Urdu newspaper of Kashmir, published a press release of Hizbul Mujahideen, in which local Pandits were instructed to leave the valley. In this press release, an appeal was also made to the Kashmiris to do jihad against India. Two months later, a similar warning was also published in the local Urdu newspaper Alsafa. Due to this there was a situation of fear in the valley and Hindus started migrating.
On one hand the terrorists were using the media for their own interests and on the other hand they were trying in a systematic manner to ensure that the news of this inhuman atrocity does not go out of the valley. For this, journalists were selectively targeted. At that time such an atmosphere was created through the journalist-murders that the local journalists kept silent.
Famous journalist and lawyer Premnath Bhatt was assassinated by terrorists on 27 December 1987, almost two years before 19 January 1990. This was seen as the first major attempt by terrorists to instill fear among journalists. On 13 February 1990, Lassa Kaul, the director of Doordarshan’s Kashmir Centre, was shot dead by terrorists in front of his house.
The coverage going by Doordarshan under the leadership of Lassa Kaul was passing through exasperating the terrorists. Due to this, Doordarshan’s broadcast in Kashmir was affected for the next few years. On 01 March 1990, PN Hundu, Assistant Director of Information in the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, was assassinated by terrorists when he was preparing to leave his home for office.
These killings created an atmosphere of fear among the unbiased local media and journalists. The journalists on whom the mainstream media also depended were mainly from the Valley. Due to lack of coverage of this massacre by fearful local journalists, this incident could not become a topic of discussion at the national level.
(Dr. Jaiprakash Singh, the author is Assistant Professor, Central University of Himachal Pradesh.)