Kashmir’s new “verification drive” claims to root out impostors, yet its heavy bureaucratic demands mainly sideline the independent freelancers who still dare to report in a shrinking media landscape. But here’s the unsettling question that hangs over the Valley like fog at dawn: who really benefits when the storytellers without institutional shields are pushed out of the frame?
Srinagar: The Kashmir Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), a government media body that also oversees the private media sector in the Valley, recently launched a large-scale verification drive to identify so-called ‘fake journalists’, leaving several reputed freelance journalists in limbo.
The Kashmir government’s circular requires journalists to submit documents, including an Aadhaar (a 12-digit ID number) or PAN card (Permanent Account Number, tax identification number), office ID, an appointment letter, contact details, six months’ salary or bank statements, and links to the digital or social media platforms of the media organisation they work for, such as Facebook, YouTube, and X (Twitter).
The circular claims the move aims to safeguard journalism, prevent fake journalists, and ensure transparency for genuine media professionals in the district.
A Verification Drive Built for Salaried Newsrooms
In India, the Aadhaar card is a twelve-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by all residents of India based on their biometrics and demographic data, similar to a U.S. Social Security number. The PAN card, on the other hand, serves as a tax identification number, essential for financial transactions and income tax filings. Both documents are indispensable for modern life in India.
While journalists working with mainstream media or regular newspapers rushed to submit the required documents, freelance journalists in the Valley struggled to comply, noting they do not receive regular salary slips or formal letters from the organisations they contribute to.
Approximately 150 students graduate with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in media studies from three universities in Kashmir each year. However, finding suitable jobs in mainstream media is difficult, forcing most of them to turn to freelancing.
“After I completed my master’s in media studies, I got a job at a reputed newspaper, but they paid me only 6,000 rupees ($73) per month. For me, that felt like exploitation, and I left within a month,” said Junaid Ahmad, 27. He then turned to freelancing, where he completed two stories on the environmental crisis within a month and earned 30,000 rupees ($365), which gave him the confidence to continue pursuing freelance journalism.
Junaid said he visited the Information Department and showed them screenshots of his international bylines, but he was told to submit the documents they requested; otherwise, he would not be allowed to cover any government-related functions or events in Kashmir. “Freelancing is not valid for us,” he was told.
Freelancers Pushed to the Margins
For young journalists like Ilhaq Ahmad, 26, who has been in the field for two years, the policy is troubling for freelancers because they do not have immediate access to the documents being requested.
This step, Ilhaq says, does not address the core problems in the media sector. Instead, it appears to restrict freelance journalists who report events on the ground.
“As a freelancer, I now have to think twice before covering any story, because if questioned, I would have nothing to prove my profession,” he said, adding that the administration should review the policy and introduce a fair system that supports genuine journalists while addressing the issue of unverified individuals in the field.
Sajad Lone, another journalist, said the verification drive should focus on educational background. “Just as lawyers need an LLB and doctors require an MBBS, professional journalists should also study media or journalism to ensure ethics, accountability, integrity, and balanced reporting. Proper training and education are essential in this regard,” he added.
“Those harming the profession are all non-professional journalists who lack ethics training,” he said. “The administration should focus on them in the verification drive. Kashmir has produced many freelancers who have reported on the environment, climate change, and rural life, bringing untold stories to global media platforms,” he added.
“Kashmir”, Lone said, “is already facing a severe media crisis marked by shrinking space for independent journalism, intense financial and political pressures, and a climate of fear and self-censorship. This crisis has resulted in job insecurity, low pay, and the departure of many qualified journalists from the profession.”
Press Freedom in a Shrinking Space
Notably, India is ranked 151st out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2025. This is an improvement from its 2024 ranking, but it is still considered to be in a "very serious" category for press freedom by the reporting organisation, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
In 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir Media Policy empowered the government to closely monitor news content for “anti-national activities” and “fake news”, while linking compliance to the allocation of government advertising. The move drew strong criticism for enabling officials to shape narratives and exert financial pressure on newsrooms in an already sensitive region.
The policy was widely seen as an effort to curb independent journalism and a direct challenge to free speech in a conflict-hit area that has witnessed some of the world’s longest internet shutdowns in a democracy.
Press freedom organisations, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF), described the policy as “Orwellian” and a form of “prior censorship”, warning that it could further shrink the space for critical reporting.
For Aqib Ahmad Khan, a young journalist who often covers armed encounters between security forces and militant groups, the challenge has become more complicated since he turned freelance.
During such incidents, he said he was frequently asked to show an identity card, something he no longer possesses as a freelancer. “In Kashmir, for the security forces, freelancers don’t ‘exist’. You must carry a proper ID card while reporting from sensitive locations,” he said.
“Now the same administration is making it worse by rejecting freelancers altogether.”
Khan said that while a crackdown on “fake journalists” was necessary, the current approach fails to target the actual problem.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the administration defines a “fake journalist” as someone who poses as a media professional without authorisation, registration, or professional credentials, often to engage in unethical activities.
“But what can a genuine freelance journalist do if he is unable to submit all these documents the administration demands?” Khan asked. “By their standards, I am also fake, simply because I don’t fit into their procedure.”
As a freelance journalist, Rashid Andrabi said he works across multiple newsrooms because “that is how this side of the profession functions.” The government’s new requirement, he added, seems to assume that every journalist has a single employer.
“It shuts out freelancers by design,” Rashid said.
“It tells us that unless we fit into a fixed structure, our work does not count.”
He acknowledged that misuse of the journalist title exists in Kashmir, but argued that the solution cannot be to demand documents freelancers simply do not have.
“The basic test is simple: stories, bylines, and editors who can verify the work. If someone has no reporting footprint, no published stories, no editorial trail, then the problem is already clear,” he said.
Rashid, who previously worked as a sub-editor at the well-known weekly magazine Kashmir Life and is now freelancing, said that if the aim is to identify fake journalists, the system should be based on verifiable work.
“Look at what people have produced over time. That will expose pretenders faster than anything else,” he said. “A policy that ignores freelancers is not a filter; it only weakens the profession.”
Rashid, who has multiple bylines across media organisations that regularly publish freelance work, said the administration must recognise this reality of the industry.
Meanwhile, an official responsible for collecting documents at one of the stations in Kashmir, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that freelancers should make a joint representation to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the top administrator appointed by New Delhi after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
