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Under the new policy, a background check of newspaper publishers, editors and key staff has been made mandatory before empanelling them for government advertisements, apart from security clearance before a journalist is given accreditation.

“J&K has significant law and order and security considerations, it has been fighting a proxy war supported and abetted from across the border,” reads the 50-page policy document that mostly deals with government advertisements to news organisations.

The new media policy announced by the J&K administration on June 2 gives it powers to decide what is “fake”, “unethical” or “anti-national” news, and to take legal action against the journalist or media organisation concerned, including stopping government advertisements and sharing information with security agencies.

“J&K has significant law and order and security considerations, it has been fighting a proxy war supported and abetted from across the border,” reads the 50-page policy document that mostly deals with government advertisements to news organisations, adding, “In such a situation, it is extremely important that the efforts of anti-social and anti-national elements to disturb peace are thwarted.”

Under the new policy, a background check of newspaper publishers, editors and key staff has been made mandatory before empanelling them for government advertisements, apart from security clearance before a journalist is given accreditation.

While DIPR Director Sehrish Asghar declined to comment, Secretary Information Rohit Kansal, who is also the government spokesman, did not respond despite repeated attempts.

According to the new policy, the government would monitor content published in newspapers and other media channels and decide what is fake news, anti-social or anti-national reporting. The news organisations involved in “fake, unethical and anti-national” reporting would be de-empanelled and not get government advertisements, apart from facing legal action.

“DIPR (Directorate of Information and Public Relations) shall examine the content of the print, electronic and other forms of media for fake news, plagiarism and unethical or anti-national activities,” says the media policy on pages 8 and 9. “…Any fake news or any news inciting hatred or disturbing communal harmony shall be proceeded against under IPC and Cyber laws”.

With regards to “fake news or news with anti-social, communal or anti-national content”, the policy adds on page 9, the DIPR will “devise a suitable coordination and information sharing mechanism with the security agencies”.

About journalists, the policy says on page 8, “Similarly, while giving/finalising accreditations, a robust background-check including verification of antecedents of each journalist would be carried out with the assistance of the relevant authorities… For this purpose, the guidelines for accreditation shall be revised and updated to reflect this requirement.”

It says before empanelment of news organisations for release of government advertisements, “antecedents of the paper/news portal as well that of its publishers/editors/key personnel (must be) duly gone into. This shall be reflected in the empanelment guidelines”.

As of now, security clearance from the J&K Police’s CID wing is mandatory before the Registrar of Newspapers for India issues registration to any newspaper.

Media in India is largely self-regulated, through agencies like the Press Council of India and News Broadcasting Standards Authority. ‘Print Media Advertisement Policy Guidelines’ of Haryana say a newspaper’s empanelment can be suspended if it “indulged in unethical practices or anti national activities as found by the Press Council of India” or the state government.

States have separate rules for accreditation of journalists, but these don’t include background check as a pre-condition.

In the recent past, several journalists in the Valley have faced police action for their news stories. Last month, photographer Masrat Zehra and journalist-author Gowhar Geelani were booked under anti-terror laws for social media posts. Police also registered a case over a news report in The Hindu and summoned its Srinagar correspondent, Peerzada Ashiq.

With inputs from The Indian Express

Shopian Encounter: All three militants killed, operation over12 militants killed in 4 days in Shopian district | Internet snapped

Srinagar: Three militants were killed in a gunfight with government forces in Sugoo Hendhama area of South Kashmir’s Shopian district on Wednesday.

Inspector General of Police Kashmir Zone Vijay Kumar (IPS) told GNS that three militants were killed in the operation. However, he said, the identity of the slain militants was yet to be ascertained.

Its pertinent to mention that total of 12 militants have been killed all alone in Shopian district since 07th June including two commanders.

Meanwhile Mobile Internet has been suspended in the Shopian district for precautionary measures.

Earlier, according to the reports reaching GNS, a joint team of Police, Army’s 44RR and CRPF launched a cordon-and-search-operation in Sugoo Hendhama.

As the joint team approached the suspected spot, the hiding militants fired upon them. The fire was retaliated by the joint team, triggering off an encounter. (GNS)

Srinagar: Kashmir-based doctors on Tuesday said that Covid-19 test results of a person can change within a few hours depending upon the viral load and RT-PCR value.

They said that although human error cannot be ruled out, scientific and clinical evidence confirms that Covid-19 test result shows huge variation in some patients within a short period, depending upon the timing of sample collection, subsequent testing, and status of the virus in the body.

A leading pulmonologist of Kashmir, Dr Parvaiz Koul, told Kashmir Reader that the Covid-19 test result can change from positive to negative within a day or a few hours if the patient’s viral load changes.

The patient can be declared as positive on day one if the samples have a rather low cycle-threshold (CT value), he said.

“And on day two, CT value could just be above the cut-off, though not very significantly different from day one, and it could be correctly reported as negative. So, change in the result is possible scientifically, unless both samples were collected simultaneously and sent to two different labs. In the latter case it can be a clear lab error,” Dr Koul, who also heads the Internal and Pulmonary medicine department at SKIMS, said.

Another doctor, Dr Shahnazwaz B Kaloo, who is working as Consultant for Vascular and Interventional Radiology, said that a positive test means ‘infection’ but a negative test does not always mean ‘no infection’.
“Sampling error is common and it can result in ‘falsely negative’ test. Lastly, if someone tests positive, he shouldn’t repeat it elsewhere. This is a waste of resources,” he wrote on Twitter.

On Monday, controversy emerged over the authenticity of Covid-19 testing in Kashmir after a senior journalist among many who tested positive for Covid-19 at the lab of Chest Diseases Hospital tested negative at other labs, including SKIMS. This discrepancy prompted the Lieutenant Governor of J&K to order a probe into it.

According to Nodal Officer for Covid-19 at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, Dr Saleem Khan, the CD Hospital lab is ICMR approved and comes under Biosafety level 3.

“There is no question that the CD Hospital lab is incorrect in its test reports. The possibility of the results changing is there because in most cases the samples were taken more than 24 hours apart,” he said.

Dr Khan said that the CD lab stands by its reports, and so does GMC Srinagar.
“Some netizens and non-medicos misunderstood the test results,” he said.

Dr Khan said he was happy that the journalist was tested negative of Covid-19. However, he added that CD Hospital microbiologists and GMC Srinagar administration were sure that the journalist was positive earlier as per the lab report.

“We confirmed the samples twice as per the guidelines. He was positive but his viral load might have shown decline when his second sample was taken at SKIMS,” he said.

Srinagar: Kashmir’s Grand Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam has appealed the authorities to cancel the Amarnath Yatra this year in view of spread of coronavirus.

With Jammu and Kashmir witnessing a spike in Covid-19 cases, authorities are considering holding Amarnath Yatra only through the shorter Baltal route this year.

The 41-day Yatra was to begin on June 23, but owing to Covid-19, authorities are yet to make an announcement. In April, the UT administration and Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board said the Yatra would be cancelled this year. The press note was later withdrawn.

“Kashmiris have always welcomed the Amarnath Yatris but it should be cancelled this year in view of the coronavirus. Kashmir is already vulnerable for COVID-19, if Yatra is allowed, there could be further spread of this infection in the valley,” Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).

“If Mosques and other religious places are closed then why Amarnath Yatra can’t be cancelled this year,” he asked.

He also raised questions why Bandipora and Ganderbal were not declared Red Zones. “Is this because Yatris have to go through these places” he asked.

The government has recently said that around 20,000 healthcare professionals and 30,000 police and paramilitary personnel were working to contain the spread of coronavirus, and their availability is also to be ascertained for the conduct of the Yatra.

The annual pilgrimage attracts devotees from all over India. The pilgrims have to register with the SASB to take part in the Amarnath Yatra. The SASB organises the travel and security with the help of the government of Jammu to Kashmir.
The Yatra starts from Yatri Bhawan in Jammu and is escorted by CRPF to the base camp at Pahalgam in Anantnag in south Kashmir. The Yatris halt at Pahalgam and then proceed in groups to trek the 48-km route for the darshan of the lingam at Amarnath cave. (KINS)

Srinagar: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Tuesday said one in three patients infected with the novel coronavirus receive false negative test results.

“A negative test does not exclude the possibility of Covid-19 infection,” said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
“RT-PCR test is the most common diagnostic test used to identify people currently infected with Covid infection. It works by detecting the virus from nasal or throat swabs of patients,” he said.

Dr Nisar said the clinical sensitivity of PCR test ranges from 66% to 80%. That means more than 30 percent of positive cases may be missed by the test.

“Inappropriate sample collection is the main culprit behind inaccurate testing,” he said.

Dr Nisar false negative results are occurring because healthcare providers aren’t collecting samples with enough of virus. This can happen because they don’t insert a swab deep enough in the nose or don’t collect enough of the sample.

“False negative can also occur if persons are testing too early or too late during their infection and there isn’t lot of virus in their cells,” he said.
“And, errors can happen if a sample sits too long before being tested which allows the virus to break down,” he added.

Dr Nisar said another issue related to PCR test is “false positive result”.
“That means people who are uninfected receive positive results for Covid,” he said.

Dr Nisar said the false positive result can be due to contamination either from a positive sample analyzed in the lab at the same time (cross contamination) or more likely from genes amplified from prior positive samples or positive controls (carryover contamination). False positives can also be produced by sample mix-ups or data entry errors.
“False positive results lead to unnecessary sequestration of uninfected individuals and waste of human resources in contact tracing,” he said.

“It is important to mention that if the test is not perfect, it does not mean it is not useful.

Proper sample procedures, good lab practice standard and using high quality PCR kits could reduce inaccurate results,” said Dr Nisar.

Herders and officials say goats that produce cashmere wool are being pushed out of grazing lands in the sensitive area.

AFP

The world is heading for a shortage of the highly prized and super-soft cashmere wool as pashmina goats that live on the “roof of the world” become caught up in the fractious border dispute between nuclear neighbours India and China.

Wool from pashmina goats, reared by nomads in the inhospitable high-altitude cold desert region of Ladakh, is the most expensive and coveted cashmere in the world.

But the shaggy creatures that provide the yarn are being pushed out of their grazing lands in the tussle between the world’s two most-populous nations, causing the death of tens of thousands of kids this season, locals and officials said.

“In about three years when the newborn goats would have started yielding pashmina we’ll see a significant drop in production,” Sonam Tsering of the All Changtang Pashmina Growers Cooperative Marketing Society told AFP.

There have been numerous face-offs and brawls between Chinese and Indian soldiers over their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) frontier, which has never been properly demarcated.

The latest is concentrated in the Ladakh region, just opposite Tibet, with Indian officials claiming Chinese troops encroached over the boundary in recent weeks.

The alleged movements came after military fisticuffs at the eastern part of the border near Sikkim in May.

‘Newborns dead’

Some traditional grazing land is lost to China each year, Tsering said.

But this year, even the main winter grazing areas near KakJung, Tum Tselay, Chumar, Damchok and Korzok are out of bounds amid the heightened tensions, he added.

“It’s devastating. The PLA (China’s People’s Liberation Army) used to encroach into our side by the metres, but this time they have come inside several kilometres,” said Jurmet, a former elected official who has only one name.

“It was breeding season for the goats. Around 85 percent of their newborns died this year because large herds were pushed out into the cold from the grazing lands (in February),” he told AFP over the phone from Leh, the region’s capital city.

Tsering said Indian soldiers were blocking the animals from entering areas deemed as sensitive, while herders told him the Chinese army was pushing Tibetan nomads into their grazing areas.

Half a dozen residents involved with goat herding who AFP spoke to said that until a few years ago, they would cross over the frozen Indus river for grazing during the winter, but those areas were now being encroached by China.

Meanwhile, communicating with the herders — whose satellite phones provided by Indian officials have been withdrawn in recent years — has become difficult, said Jurmet.

Vital handicrafts industry

The huge number of deaths — in the tens of thousands according to a local Indian official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity — could devastate the sector in the coming years.

The goats yield some 50 tonnes of the finest and most expensive feather-light cashmere wool each year, supporting the vital handicrafts industry in Kashmir that employs thousands of people.

Most of the wool is woven into yarn and exquisite shawls sold the world over from luxury store Harrods in London to the Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates, and can cost up to US$800 for one scarf.

More than 1,000 families of nomadic Changpa herders roam the vast Changtang plateau at over 5,000 metres (16,400 feet), grazing some 300,000 Pashmina goats, black yaks and horses through the summer months.

They move to the slightly lower altitude grazing lands straddling Tibet and along the mighty Indus river during harsh winter months of December to February when temperatures drop up to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit).

The military tensions are the latest blow for the herders, who are already reeling from the impact of climate change which has made winters harsher and summers drier.

Something have even abandoned their generations-long way of life to migrate to towns in Ladakh in search of other sources of income.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

PTI

New Delhi: A prominent advocate was on Tuesday appointed a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

According to a Law Ministry notification, Javed Iqbal Wani has been appointed a judge of the common high court of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.

His recommendation, made by the Supreme Court Collegium, was pending with the central government for the past few months.

The recommendation was finally processed last week and the notification issued on Tuesday.

Wani has represented the Union government in several cases in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

He is the son-in-law of Mian Abdul Qayoom, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, who was detained under the Public Safety Act.