“What?? Can you repeat?… Stop the music… ” Masarat Zahra, can now recall with a laugh, straining to hear the call on Thursday night informing her she had won the  prestigious Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award given by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). 

“I will talk to you later,” she told the caller, unable to speak anymore as her voice choked and she broke into tears. She had just become the first woman photojournalist from Kashmir to have won such a prestigious international award. 

“I was at my cousin’s wedding when the call came, and I had to ask the family to shut the music, because I could not hear anything. Then I just started crying,” said Masrat Zahra, speaking to SabrangIndia over the phone.
 

Image: Instagram / masrat_zahra

As happy tears flowed, the celebrations at the family wedding she was at doubled and no one minded that they had to mute the music for a bit. The award honours the life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer and IWMF’s Courage in Journalism Award winner Anja Niedringhaus (1965-2014).  It is given to women photojournalists whose visual documentation reflects the circumstances they work under, and honours their courage and dedication.

Masrat Zahra, knows a thing or two about both courage and dedication. She was in the news recently when she was booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), for her work. The case against the 24-year-old photographer barely in her fourth year as a freelance photojournalist has still not been dropped. The future, as is the case for all those currently booked under UAPA across the country, is still uncertain. “Right now, the case is still on it is like a sword hanging on my head,” said Zahra, adding that her family has been very supportive, but continue to worry for her well being. 

For now, all she has is a verbal assurance from the investigating agencies. They have not contacted her again after they had called her for ‘questioning’. Nor have they dropped the case. In fact, Masarat does not even have a copy of the first information report that was perhaps filed that day, and so does not know any details about the case.

Zahra had been booked for allegedly “uploading anti-national posts with criminal intention to induce the youth and to promote offences against public tranquillity.” The Cyber Police, Srinagar, has charged Zahra under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 505 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

According to the press release, issued at that time, by the Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar, the FIR was filed against a ‘Facebook user’ on April 18, under Section 13 of the UAPA and Section 505 of the IPC. Investigations are on, the press release stated and alleged: ‘The Facebook user, identified by the name Masrat Zahra, is uploading photographs that can provoke the public to disturb law and order and glorify anti-national activities.’ 

In the days that followed her questioning, Zahra was showered with support from journalists, rights, and feminists’ groups from across the country, and abroad. She remembers the Kashmir Press Club standing by her all through. The UAPA case, she says, is a “message to the whole journalist fraternity [of the region]. ‘Do not talk, do not tell the truth… do not speak,” she adds it is an attempt to silence voices of journalists. She wonders why else would they pick her, a young freelance woman photo journalist, to be booked under the UAPA. 

Being a journalist in Kashmir is challenging to say the least, being a photojournalist is even riskier, and being a woman photojournalist would just top the ‘risk-assessment-list’ if there was one.  Perhaps there should be one, and it should have a roll of honour for those who dare.  Kashmiri-Muslim-woman-photo journalist, may read as an over-hypehnated mouthful, but it reflects the challenges of both the profession and the socio-political situation Zahra lives and works under.
 

The middle child of a homemaker mother and a government employee father, members of a conservative extended family, Zahra perhaps also has to swim against social norms, as she continues her work. This award has also come as a token of reassurance to Zahra’s parents, that their daughter is doing well on her chosen path. Especially after all the stress induced by the UAPA charges.

“My family is happy now,” she says. The award also empowers her to shut down naysayers and venture out for her stories more, “I got my award for my work not for sitting at home. It is my journalistic work,” says the freelancer who regularly updates her social media handles with the photos she takes, “i use my social media as my portfolio. I get commissions, including some international work.”

She wants to continue working in Kashmir and explore stories that are not yet known to non locals, “there are many untold stories. I want to tell them. I will not stop.”  She wants to make long form documentaries and credits her achievements to guidance from her mentor, Shaukhat Nanda, a Kashmir based documentary filmmaker. “After I told my parents I rushed to tell my teacher Shaukat Nanda,” said Zahra adding that he was the one who helped her with everything, including submitting the application to be considered for this award. 

I am incredibly honored to share that I have won the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award from @IWMF I’m happy that my work has finally been recognized.
After thanking Almighty,I would like to say a big thank to my mentor, @ShowkatNanda for his guidance, love & care pic.twitter.com/ztMcdlpEKO

— Masrat Zahra (@Masratzahra) June 11, 2020

“He was shocked, left the tea he was drinking and was crying too,” she remembers her phone call to him, adding the award is for the entire community of journalists in Kashmir, “It is a big thing for all of us.”

With this award, her work will be showcased to a larger audience and she will also get a cash prize of $20,000. She already knows where that money will be spent, “I will update my [photography] gear, I will buy professional gear and editing software.” She will then continue her freelance work, as well as her long-term documentary project on forgotten and untold stories of Kashmir. “Studying further is also an option,” says Zahra who holds a Masters degree in Journalism from the Central University of Kashmir.

Zahra’s evocative work has been published by several magazines, online and other media outlets including The Caravan, The Washington Post, TRT World, Al Jazeera, The New Humanitarian, and Religion Unplugged. She has also exhibited her portfolio titled: “Journalists Under Fire”, at the annual Photoville festival in New York.

Related:
Journalists are not terrorists, journalism is not a crime 

The post I got my award for my work, not for sitting at home: Masrat Zahra appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Twenty-six-year old Masrat Zahra took to twitter and decided to let her friends and family, and perhaps hundreds of others following her case know that she was doing fine and following procedures. She had been called in, perhaps for the second time, yesterday to the Cyber Cell for questioning. To everyone’s relief she confirmed that she had not been arrested “I met the concerned police officials of the case and answered their questions regarding the investigation, I have not been arrested and the investigation is going. Thanks all for the support.”

I met the concerned police officials of the case and answered their questions regarding the investigation, I have not been arrested and the investigation is going. Thanks all for the support.

— Masrat Zahra (@Masratzahra) April 21, 2020

Her social media update on being safe is a tad ironic when one recalls that Zahra had been booked for allegedly “uploading anti-national posts with criminal intention to induce the youth and to promote offences against public tranquility.” The Cyber Police, Srinagar, has charged Zahra under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 505 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to the press release, issued by the Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar, the FIR was filed against a ‘Facebook user’ on April 18, under Section 13 of the UAPA and Section 505 of the IPC. Investigations are on, the press release stated and alleged: ‘The Facebook user, identified by the name Masrat Zahra, is uploading photographs that can provoke the public to disturb law and order and glorify anti-national activities.’ 

Tahir Ashraf, SP, Incharge Cyber Police Kashmir himself posted: “Cyber Police Station Kashmir registered FIR against a social media user for posting incriminating material which attracts the provisions of UA(P)A and IPC. Investigation has been set into motion. One of the glimpses”

Cyber Police Station Kashmir registered FIR against a social media user for posting incriminating material which attracts the provisions of UA(P)A and IPC. Investigation has been set into motion. One of the glimpses ?? pic.twitter.com/FMQ4BfBZ4w

— Tahir Ashraf (@Tahir_A) April 20, 2020

Author and journalist Gowhar Geelani, too was booked for using social media platforms for allegedly “indulging in unlawful activities.” reports the KashmirWallah. According to the report the police claimed that Geelani’s posts and writings were “prejudicial to national integrity, sovereignty and security of India.”

In a statement, the police said: “The unlawful activities include glorifying terrorism in Kashmir Valley, causing disaffection against the country and causing fear or alarm in the minds of public that may lead to commission of offences against public tranquility and the security of State.”

In the last two days, the same law has been used to book Muslim activists, students and journalists. They are journalists Masrat Zahra, Peerzada Ashiq, Gowhar Geelani; Jamia Millia Islamia students Meeran Haider, and Safoora Zargar, and well known student leader Dr Umar Khalid, from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The journalists, who hail from and work in Jammu & Kashmir have found words of solidarity being voiced by many in the fraternity. The Editors Guild of India has issued a statement expressing “shock and concern the high-handed manner in which the law enforcement agencies in Jammu & Kashmir have used the prevailing laws to deal with two Srinagar-based journalists, Masrat Zahra, a young freelance photographer, and Peerzada Ashiq, a reporter working for The Hindu.”  

Using such a law was a “gross misuse of power” said the Guild, adding that the purpose was to “strike terror” into journalists working in Kashmir, and also indirectly intimidate the  journalists working in the rest of the country as well.

“The journalists should be put to no harm or further harassment. If the government has any grievance against their reporting, there are other ways of dealing with such issues in the normal course. Mere social media posts of factual pictures can’t attract the toughest anti-terror laws passed for hardened terrorists” stated the Guild.

They said if the authorities had any objection to The Hindu reporter Peerzada Ashi’s report the matter should have been raised with the newspaper’s editor. The Guild has demanded that the “Union Territory administration of Jammu & Kashmir withdraw the charges forthwith”.

The Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) too expressed its shock at how the  law-enforcement authorities in Jammu & Kashmir, “invoked laws to clamp down on freedom of speech and expression that violate fundamental rights laid down in the Constitution.”

The IWPC said that the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) used against freelance photographer Masarat Zahra, a fellow woman journalist, is an Act meant to deal with hardened terrorists. While FIRs have been lodged against Peerzada Ashiq, a reporter with The Hindu newspaper based in Srinagar and Gowhar Geelani, a freelance journalist.

The IWPC noted that the intentions of the authorities in J&K was to “strike fear in the hearts of journalists who are simply doing their job. This is a clear message that the Union Territory will not tolerate dissent.”

The women’s press corps reiterate that, “Masarat Zahra had only posted some pictures on social media. Peerzada Ashiq had just filed a report, while Gowhar Geelani’s commentary attracted the displeasure of the government. They too hoped that “these structures are withdrawn at the earliest.”

Earlier the Network of Women in Media India (NWMI) has issued a strong statement expressing  shock at the charges made against its Kashmir-based member, award-winning photojournalist, Masrat Zahra saying. A member of the Kashmir chapter of NWMI had written an impassioned letter seeking support for Masrat, and for all journalists, especially women writers and photographers working in Kashmir saying, “Journalism, after all, is not a crime. We are less than 15 female journalists actively working in Kashmir though there may be many others. We cover stories in shoulder to shoulder with men under very difficult and critical circumstances. We don’t even comprise one percent in the field which is dominated by men. Please do not fail us.”

Masarat Zahra has been freelancing for organisations like Getty Images, The Sun, The Washington Post, Al-Arabiya (UK) , Rising Kashmir and The Quint. She has shared many of her previously published photographs on Facebook.

The NWMI has said that it believes that the “charges are preposterous in the extreme and amount to rank intimidation of a journalist, and one who has won acclaim for her work, which documents the lived experiences of the people of Kashmir. Her special sensitivity towards the plight of women living under conflict in one of the most highly militarised zones in the world has been featured in both national and international publications of repute.”

The NWMI has demanded that the FIR lodged against Masrat Zahra be dropped, and that the police and security forces in Kashmir, and across the country stop the intimidation and harassment of  journalists.  

The Delhi Union of Journalists is appalled at the arbitrary FIR against Kashmir’s only woman photojournalist Masarat Zahra, under the draconian UAPA which permits indefinite detention.  The police have also filed an FIR and interrogated senior journalist Ashiq Peerzada of The Hindu for a story he recently published. The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an end to harassment of Zahra and Peerzada.

In fact, in what will now sound ironical as she faces ‘sedition’ charges, Masrat Zahra was once trolled and vilified online and called “army informer”. This, according to the NWMI was in connection with her photograph entitled ‘Gun vs Camera’, posted on 15 May, 2018, which shows her at work, covering an encounter between the Indian Army and a group of militants in Kachdoora, Shopian. At that time also the network had issued a statement and said, “such vicious and irresponsible labelling of a journalist in an already polarised political climate is dangerous and must be unequivocally condemned”. A member of the NWMI’s Kashmir chapter had earlier shared a detailed note seeking solidarity from the media fraternity. 

This is the second time in the recent past that the UAPA has been deployed against journalists in Kashmir. Journalist Aasif Sultan, who was arrested in August 2018 under the UAPA for an article on the slain militant leader Burhan Wani, published in the ‘Kashmir Narrator’, is still in jail. 

Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of Amnesty International India also issued a statement and called the police action against journalists the “the authorities’ attempt to curb the right to freedom of expression.” He added that such “harassment and intimidation of journalists through draconian laws such as UAPA threatens the efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic and creates an atmosphere of fear and reprisal.”

According to Amnesty international the situation in Kashmir, is “compounded through the general lockdown, prolonged restrictions on internet speed and arbitrary detentions often without any kind of documentation, access to lawyers and recourse to justice. This severely undermines the human rights guarantees of the people of Kashmir and denies the people in India and around the world’s right to know.”

Related:

No democracy fighting the pandemic is gagging its media
Why is the government targeting journalists?
Defend freedom of expression
Anand Teltumbde’s letter to people of India
Gautam Navlakha’s call for freedom
It took influential Arab anger for India to notice hate speech

The post Journalists are not terrorists, journalism is not a crime appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image courtesy Masrat Zahra’s Facebook profile.
 
The Network of Women in Media, India, stands in solidarity with photojournalist Masrat Zahra, who is being subjected to online abuse and intimidation for carrying out her journalistic duty. 
On 15 May, 2018, Masrat Zahra, a female freelance photographer based in Srinagar posted a photograph titled ‘Gun vs Camera’, which shows her at work, covering an encounter between the Indian Army and a group of militants in Kachdoora, Shopian. The photograph, where Masrat is seen amid the four army personnel while covering the gunfight, was taken by a photographer colleague. She was also injured on the same day when the house was burned down during the gunfight and the photographers were asked to run for cover.
Soon, Masrat’s post received a comment labelling her as a ‘Mukhbir’ or informer.  This defamatory screenshot referring to Masrat as an informer who works for the army got viral within no time. Such vicious and irresponsible labelling of a journalist in an already polarised political climate is dangerous and must be unequivocally condemned.
Multiple Facebook pages shared the photo, used sexist and abusive language and called her a spy, traitor and collaborator. This was followed by online harassment in the form of threats, abuses and intimidation. 
The online abuse and threats have created immense fear and mental stress for Masrat, who is a student of central university of Kashmir studying convergent journalism. She also works as a freelance photographer and contributes to Hong Kong-based Editorial Photo Agency.
The NWMI is deeply concerned about the threats and abuse directed at a young woman photojournalist carrying out the important journalistic duty of informing the public about current happenings in Kashmir. She must be allowed to carry on her studies as well as her professional duties without fear.
The NWMI demands that:

• The cyber-crime cell of the police takes action against the perpetrators of the online abuse
• Social media platforms such as Facebook step up measures against violent and abusive content

The post NWMI demands and end to the Online Abuse and Intimidation of Masrat Zahra appeared first on SabrangIndia.