Foreign journalists barred from covering occupied Kashmir, says BBC

LONDON: Foreign journalists are not allowed to cover the situation in India-occupied Kashmir after the Modi-led government revoked the region's special status accorded under Article 370 of the Indian constitution, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said on Wednesday.

There has been intense criticism on British Television channels for not covering the genocide in Kashmir adequately, despite the fact that over one million Kashmiris are residing in the United Kingdom. To mark one year since Kashmir’s autonomy was scrapped, British Kashmiris have launched dozens of petitions condemning BBC, ITV and Sky News for not covering the issue of Kashmir.

In an interview with Geo News, a BBC spokesperson said: "Only Indian nationals working for the BBC are allowed to enter Indian occupied Kashmir".

It’s widely known that India doesn’t allow European and English parliamentarians as well as independent media to enter into occupied Kashmir, but the BBC's own acknowledgement gives further credence to the fact that India doesn’t give any regard to the lives of over seven million besieged Kashmiris and doesn’t want the world to know about their plight.

The BBC spokesman added: “The BBC is committed to covering the situation in Kashmir from all perspectives. Our immediate and direct response to the blackout imposed in August 2019 was to step up BBC World Service shortwave broadcasts for Kashmir in Hindi, Urdu and English — for four months.”

According to the BBC, in 2019, the broadcasting service saw unprecedented digital traffic to their Hindi and Urdu language websites.

"The BBC was the only international broadcaster covering events on the ground in August 2019. BBC News coverage was widely acclaimed for explaining this complex story to global audiences, and for helping both parties in the conflict understand each other’s perspectives," said the spokesperson.

"We have continued our in-depth coverage of Kashmir throughout 2020 and the work of our teams in South Asia adds depth to the BBC’s coverage of the Kashmir story in the UK and internationally. BBC News Hindi and Urdu reporters in Kashmir continue to provide audiences in India, Pakistan, the wider region, as well as English-speaking audiences around the world, with balanced and trusted news and analysis."

The BBC also confirmed that special content marking the first anniversary of the revocation of the special status of Kashmir would run across all of its outlets and was currently in production.

Geo.tv reached out to BBC, ITV and Sky News requesting comments regarding their coverage of the genocide in Kashmir but even after multiple requests, there was no response from these major news networks.

This is in addition to the fact that Hong Kong, which also underwent a change in its status, saw unprecedented coverage by major British TV networks on a daily basis. The issue of Kashmir, however, was somehow missing in mainstream British TV coverage. 

The explosion in Beirut on August 4, killing and injuring hundreds, remained breaking news on BBC, Sky News and ITV for over 24 hours but these broadcasters have not given the same attention to the issue of Kashmir.

According to a recent op-ed published in Nikkei Asian Review, "India's Article 370 experiment in Kashmir has failed."

The publication raised the issue at a time when a recent curfew is being imposed in Kashmir during August 4-5, marking the anniversary of the change in the special status of Kashmir.

The fascist Indian government has also imposed the longest-ever lockdown of internet and telephone services, completely disrupting communication channels of Kashmiris who continue to live under the siege of Indian forces.

One million-strong diaspora of Kashmiri heritage has expressed dismay over the lack of and sometimes the absence of Kashmir coverage on UK’s TV networks.

Several members of the Kashmiri community said they have their kith and kin in Indian occupied Kashmir and the media blackout is making it impossible for the world to know their sufferings and come to their aid.

Kashmiri activists Khawaja Hasan Butt, Tehseen Gilani, Tariq Dar, Zafar Qureshi, Zubair Iqbal Kiyani, Raja Sikandar and others lamented that BBC has failed to justify its editorial policy on Kashmir. They questioned why the network gives coverage to every conflict "but on the issue of Indian occupied Kashmir, it has been mute".

It is conspicuous that despite restrictions on foreign journalists to travel and cover the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir, there is little protest seen by these journalists and media outlets, Kashmiri leaders said.

They said that they pay license fees to BBC every month and expect it to represent them and be neutral and robust in reporting the genuine issues affecting the people of Kashmir in Britain.