NEW YORK, Oct 19 (APP): The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent watchdog body, has denounced as “arbitrary and excessive” the Indian authorities’ action to prevent Kashmiri photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo to travel abroad and collect her Pulitzer Prize in New York, while calling for ending the persecution of journalists covering the situation in occupied Kashmir.
On Monday evening, according to media reports, immigration officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi stopped Mattoo, who was flying to New York to receive the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in a ceremony scheduled for Thursday.
Ms Mattoo, a freelance photojournalist, was part of a Reuters team that won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, according to the journalist and the Pulitzer website.
Officials declined to give Mattoo any reason for being barred from leaving the country, despite holding a valid passport and US visa, she told CPJ. She said on Twitter that attending the award ceremony is “a once in a lifetime opportunity” for her.
“There is no reason why Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo, who had all the right travel documents and has won a Pulitzer–one of the most prestigious journalism awards–should have been prevented from travelling abroad,” Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, in Frankfurt, Germany, said in a statement.
“This decision is arbitrary and excessive,” she said. “Indian authorities must immediately cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against journalists covering the situation in Kashmir.”
In July, Ms Mattoo was prevented from travelling to Paris without being offered any reason at the same airport, according to news reports and Mattoo’s tweet at the time.
The Ministry of Home Affairs oversees the country’s immigration authorities and did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.
Since August 2019, when the Indian government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special autonomy status, Kashmiri journalists have told CPJ that they are being barred from travelling abroad.