Pulitzer winner Kashmiri photojournalist barred from flying abroad

Pulitzer winning Kashmiri photographer Sanna Irshad Mattoo on Saturday said she was barred from flying to Paris to participate in a book launch and photo exhibition but authorities did not provide any reason for it.

Mattoo, a freelance photographer who shared the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in the Feature Photography category along with Reuters photojournalists, tweeted that she was scheduled to travel from Delhi to Paris today (Saturday) for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of ten award winners of the Serendipity Arles grant 2020.

"Despite procuring a French visa, I was stopped at the immigration desk at Delhi airport. I was not given any reason but told I would not be able to travel internationally," she said, sharing images of her ticket and passport with a stamp "cancelled without prejudice".

There was no official response to the barring of Mattoo from flying out. Authorities have earlier barred several Kashmiri journalists from flying out of the country.

Earlier in September 2019, journalist Gowhar Geelani was stopped at Delhi airport on his way to Germany.

The Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) came out in support of Mattoo and urged the government to allow her to travel freely.

"The Indian government must immediately end its practice of barring Kashmiri journalists from foreign travel. The travel bans are part of a systematic pattern of harassment against Kashmiri journalists, who have increasingly faced arbitrary arrest, frivolous legal cases, threats, physical attacks, and raids since August 2019," the CPJ (Asia) tweeted.