Srinagar: The Press Club of Kashmir held its general body meeting at a local hotel on Saturday, where various issues facing the fraternity were discussed. The members highlighted the decline in the media’s reputation across the Union Territory due to the unchecked growth of social media platforms. However, they urged the Jammu and Kashmir information and public relations department to relax the qualifying criteria for journalists to operate news portals or use social media for content upload.
The meeting began with heartfelt tributes to journalists who passed away, including Tariq Ahmad (The Week), Nisar Ahmad (The Hindu), Naseer Ahmad, and Shafat Sideeqi (Dainik Jagran). The gathering witnessed wide participation from journalists across the region, including editors, reporters, photographers, and video journalists representing various local dailies.
President Mohammad Saleem Pandit assured that his team would continue to work for the welfare and dignity of media professionals be they editors, reporters, translators, cameramen, photographers, or video journalists emphasizing unity and professional growth within the fraternity.
The president of the club, Mr. Mohammad Saleem Pandit, listened to the members. While he agreed on certain issues to be discussed with the government, he disagreed on several points with the members. The press club members, however, expressed complete faith in the leadership of Mr. Saleem Pandit and reiterated their full support for him as the president of the press club until it obtains its accommodation to operate smoothly.
Ironically, the Press Club of Kashmir is currently being run from the local hotel near Gurdwara at Amira Kadal, Srinagar, in view of the non-compliance of the court order by the Omar Abdullah government. Importantly, the Jammu and Kashmir high court has now given the time till 17th November, 2025, to the government to comply with the court order for allotting a suitable place to the press club, the PCK spokesman said.
Importantly, several editors from local media houses were also present at the general body meeting and voiced their support for Mr Saleem Pandit’s leadership. The body ultimately decided to raise several issues concerning the Kashmir media with the government.
The president, M. Saleem Pandit, was authorised by the media fraternity to address the issue of unequal distribution of government advertisements with the information department, but Mr Pandit, at the same time, appealed to the editors and owners of the local print media to issue offer letters to their employees and to also maintain the employees’ PF. (Spokesman, Press Club of Kashmir)
