SRINAGAR: The Kashmir Press Club (KPC) strongly condemns the false and motivated smear campaign against a Kashmiri journalist working in an international media organisation TRT.
A statement issued by KPC said that journalist Baba Umar who is currently working with an international news organisation in Turkey in an email to Kashmir Press Club stated that dangerous false allegations were leveled in a factually incorrect and libelous article by the Greek City Times, a “Greek lifestyle site” headquartered in Sydney. This baseless article was later amplified by Zee New and IANS without fact checking or seeking the version of Baba.
“As is clear from the testimony of journalist Baba Umar and also the stories run by fact checking websites www.altnews.in and a news portal reporting on media – News laundry, the reports against Baba Umar are factually incorrect and deliberately misleading,” said the statement.
In fact, once the facts were brought to the fore by Baba Umar, the Sydney based hitherto unknown “lifestyle” site also issued an apology but later on carried a fresh baseless and misleading article targeting Kashmiri journalists working abroad including Baba Umar, said the statement.
The Kashmir Press Club while condemning the false labeling demands an unconditional apology from the Sydney based site and also urges it to pull down its malicious content targeting the Kashmiri journalists community who have proved their mettle by their sheer competence and upheld the highest journalistic standards over the years amid difficult circumstances, said the statement.
It further said that KPC expects Zee News and IANS to pull down its ‘malicious content’ targeting Kashmiri journalists and issue an unconditional apology to Baba Umar and other Kashmiri journalists who are part of our fraternity.
The Club also urged the Press Council of India, Press Club of India and also the Editors Guild of India to intervene and take steps against this ‘smear and disinformation’ campaign based on falsehoods targeting Kashmiri journalists as it severely endangers their lives.
