Restore Kashmir Press Club's registration, start process of election of office-bearers: PCI to Manoj Sinha

The PCI also objected to the presence of police at the KPC premises, calling it 'highly condemnable and totally illegal'

The taking over of the management of Kashmir Press Club by a group of journalists ran into a controversy with journalist bodies like the Editors Guild of India and Press Club of India condemning the act and accusing the administration of playing a part in the whole episode.

The Editors Guild of India said in a statement that it was "aghast" at the manner in which the office and the management of Kashmir Press Club, the largest journalists’ association in the Valley, was forcibly taken over by a group of journalists with the help of armed policemen on January 15.

It said that the Guild is "equally alarmed by an arbitrary order of putting the registration" of the Kashmir Press Club “in abeyance”, a day before this "armed take over".

The statement said the Club had been issued a fresh “re-registration” on December 29 last year and the interim management had on January 13 announced the election on February 15.

"The armed takeover has effectively scuttled this rule-based functioning of the Club. Even more disturbingly, the state police entered the premises without any due warrant or paperwork, and have therefore been brazenly complicit in this coup, in which a group of people have become self-declared management of the Club," it said.

"This violation of the sanctity of the club by the police and the local administration is a manifestation of the continuing trend to smother press freedom in the state," it said.

The Press Club of India said it was deeply concerned over developments, saying it was an "attempt" to "deliberately derail the democratic process" and throttle the body of journalists.

It demanded that the holding elections be allowed to proceed in a peaceful manner. "Only the democratically elected body of journalists has a right to run the affairs of the Club in Srinagar as per the bylaws and constitution of the Kashmir Press Club," it said.

The group of journalists who took over the management issued a statement saying the Kashmir Press Club refutes the "malicious propaganda" and claimed that the takeover came following a "popular demand" from the journalist fraternity.

"The journalists wanted the institution to be headed by the founding president who had played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Club, and other working journalists of repute to pave the way for much-awaited elections,” the statement said.

The Delhi Union of Journalists said it was "dismayed" at the developments. It said it was "unfortunate" that a division seems to have been created within journalists, with a small faction ‘taking over’ the Club when Srinagar was under a lockdown.

Deploring the developments, the Mumbai Press Club condemned the "forcible takeover" of the Kashmir Press Club from the legally elected management body "in conjunction with security forces".

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