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In Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), once echoed with journalistic voices, a silent crisis is unfolding: the collapse of the print media. Once printing over 10,000 copies a day, newspapers in Muzaffarabad now struggle to cross even 900.
This dramatic decline exposes the hollow reality behind Pakistan's claims of press freedom. Journalists in PoJK are facing unprecedented exploitation. Owners of media houses collect large government subsidies under the pretence of operating thriving publications but fail to pay even basic salaries to their staff. "Our voices are being buried under financial suffocation," said a local journalist who feared retribution for speaking openly. Dissent in editorial content is met with swift punishment. Reporters are fired without cause, denied commissions, and left to fend for themselves. "We risk our lives reporting the truth from the ground," another journalist said. "But our reward is humiliation and hunger." Tensions between press owners and workers have reached a breaking point. Many journalists have publicly demanded state intervention to set a minimum wage of Rs 40,000 and revoke the licenses of those outlets that withhold salaries. "They collect lakhs from the government every year, yet refuse to pay those who create the content," said a senior press worker from PoJK. This is not merely a media mismanagement issue; it's state-enabled suppression. By ignoring the plight of the press, Islamabad signals complicity in silencing independent voices in its occupied territory. In a region already suffering from political disenfranchisement, the gagging of journalism further strips people of their right to information and accountability. What remains of the press in PoJK is under siege, with no safety nets or protections in place. Pakistan's global claims of democracy and press freedom stand exposed by the grim realities in PoJK, where journalists are not just silenced, they are strangled by neglect, censorship, and exploitation sanctioned by the state itself. (ANI)
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