The Shooting Of Messenger

Yaseen Shabaz Malik
Every individual of Kashmir has been witnessing the prevailing conflict in the valley since over three decades and have many a times became the targets themselves.
From every cranny of the valley, journalists seem to be targeted. Nevertheless, with lots of hardship they make way to reach the spot to record the truth to the world, even though they are still beaten ruthlessly on no basis.
Doing the most hectic and dicey job in Kashmir valley, a journalist has to face several barriers and what not to reach the capturing destination. He sometimes have to walk miles on foot through paddy fields, bumpy roads reach the distance where they are again attacked by angry mobs.
According to a recent survey, India falls on 5th number in the list of deadliest countries for journalists, as it has been experienced that it’s one of the hardest professions in this country.
The questions rises that why is it happening here, is there anything yet mysterious which a pen can highlight? Is this the reason why journalists face these kinds of hardships because they are capable of pointing out the misdeeds and errors?
This kind of atmosphere is a sign of total ignorance and unlettered indifference. A developing country should consider each and every little which could help in its growth. Media and journalism are the most important resources which help a country in growing and changing.
A journalist pack his equipments early morning to go places to extract information regarding daily life or special assignments, and still sometimes return home empty handed with haunting sounds of abusive words.
When responsible journalists cover any conflict story in the area, often security personnel’s thrash them out, denying them access as they too are as much responsible for the duty.
Being a journalist, the person becomes responsible to perform his duty properly so that can bring forth everything truthfully to the eyes of people. Although he must experience a lot of hindrances, nevertheless, he must be given utmost priority to his job.
During the coverage of any encounter site journalists witness exchange of gunshots and often find themselves in the midst of losing life in that vary situation but still they are willing to capture these moments without caring about their lives and forwarding their work to the concerned agencies.
“When I started the job I was excited to get an opportunity like this, I never thought it would be this dangerous in the future.
It was just about writing articles and taking pictures but now I understand it is so much more than that.” said a journo who wished to be anonymous.
“A Journalist has his own responsibilities, duties and sacrifices” he says.
Recently in north Kashmir’s Hajin, the hotbed of Militancy of Bandipora district, when the funeral of two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants was going on, among the people thrown down from the stage, were the freelance photojournalist Sajid Maqbool Raina and several other Kashmir based journalists.
A number of other journalists in Kashmir valley, who were reporting daily conflicts, ended their careers in the fear of hurt and undeserved cruelties they had to face.
Inspite of numerous past reports, journalists are still being repeatedly targeted because, unfortunately, no one pays attention to this matter even though freedom of media is the fourth pillar of democracy.
This transparent brutality and oppression towards journalist wing could be a great threat to the profession in the future. Such incidents can put an aspiring mass communication student in doubt which can degrade the percentage of journalists in our society leaving it in a desperate need of an efficient camera person.
We have to decide our destiny; whether to keep quiet and let things continue the way they are, or to raise voice for our rights in order to achieve better journalism conditions.