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From Our Own Correspondent

The press under pressure in Indian-administered Kashmir

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kate Adie introduces correspondents' dispatches from Kashmir, Russia, Nigeria, Slovakia and Paraguay. Understanding the complexities of politics and identity in Indian-administered Kashmir is not easy - and so the Kashmir Press Club was not just a social spot for local reporters, but an informal university for visiting journalists from elsewhere. It was recently closed down by the Indian government: just one sign of the narrowing margins for media freedom in the region. Yogita Limaye reflects on the challenges to reporting on Kashmir in such a climate. Amid the fog of war, it's harder than ever to separate truth from misinformation about public opinion in Russia. So Will Vernon took to the streets of Moscow to ask members of that public what they think. In their answers, there were words of resignation and nervousness as well as of patriotism. He also heard from an anonymous Russian military analyst and people within the "ever-shrinking world" of opposition politics. The recent coup in Niger was roundly condemned by the regional trade and diplomatic bloc ECOWAS, led by Nigeria. ECOWAS threatened military action and immediately suspended trade with Niger. That had immediate effects for the truckers and traders who regularly cross the border between Niger and Nigeria - as well as the families and religious groups with extensive networks in both countries. Catherine Norris Trent hears of their concerns over the crisis. The double murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova in 2018 caused outrage in Slovakia. It set off a wave of public protests which eventually brought down a government. So how has it happened that five years later, the legal cases to convict all the killers is still ongoing, and that Robert Fico, who was unseated by that protest movement, is a contender to be re-elected Prime Minister? John Kampfner investigates a story of secrets and lies. By some estimates, a language dies, along with its last speaker, around every 40 days; a loss of human knowledge and worldviews we might not come to regret until it's too late. All over the world, indigenous languages are disappearing fast. But in South America there's a notable exception: Guarani, which is widely spoken in Paraguay and beyond - and not only by people of Guarani descent. Grace Livingstone listens to some of the language's most passionate defenders and promoters, who say they'd like their mother tongue to get a little more respect.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

0:05.0

Good morning. Today, the mood music in Moscow, with words of indifference, resignation,

0:12.2

and outright fear from its residents. In the far north of Nigeria, we talk to traders

0:18.0

and truckers who are feeling the consequences of the coup just over the border in Niger.

0:24.4

How public debate in Slovakia is riddled with suspicion and conspiracy theories as it

0:30.3

prepares for a general election. And why one indigenous language in Paraguay is still

0:36.4

alive and kicking and demanding to be heard with more respect?

0:41.7

First to India, where questions about press freedom are growing increasingly pointed. Television

0:47.5

and radio news shows are now often dominated by aggressively nationalist hosts, blustering

0:53.9

about anti-nationals, activists and journalists whom they blame for telling unwelcome stories.

1:01.2

But broadcast news isn't the only medium to feel the pinch.

1:05.4

Yogi Telemaya reports from Kashmir, where print reporters too have been targeted for punishment.

1:12.8

Whenever I visited Kashmir in the past, one of the first stops for our team from the BBC

1:18.0

was always the Kashmir press club. A two-story building with exposed red brick walls

1:23.8

in the centre of Srinagar. Over cups of steaming milk tea from the press club's small

1:29.5

cafeteria, I've met dozens of Kashmiri journalists who have been generous with their time and expertise

1:35.8

helping me understand the complexities of the region. So it was strange to not have such

1:40.7

a place to go to. Last year, the Indian government shot it down and took back the land

1:46.1

allotted to it. Press clubs across India operate on government

1:50.6

land. It's part of a long tradition set up soon after India became independent in 1947,

1:57.3

with the view that journalistic bodies provide a public service and are an integral part

2:02.5

of upholding the values of a democracy. The closure of the Kashmir press club was yet

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