Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo from Kashmir has been blocked from flying to Paris by Indian authorities. In Paris, he attended the release of the book and participated in a photo exhibition displaying photographs. From Kashmir.
Kashmir-based freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer Mattoo, published by Reuters, won the Pulitzer Prize in the Feature Photography category in May 2022. She shared the award with three other Reuters photographers for reporting the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
Mattoo said she stopped at Delhi Airport on Saturday, even though she had a valid French visa.
"The Immigration Bureau stopped me from boarding a plane in New Delhi. They said I wasn't allowed to travel abroad. I was why I was stopped. I asked them, they said they didn't know why, "Mattoo told VOA over the phone.
"I was planning to participate in the book launch and photo exhibition as one of the 10 winners of Serendipity Arles Grant 2020. My photos will be on display there," she said. Told. "It's unfortunate that I can't fly to Paris to attend this festival. The festival is hosted by Serendipity Arles Grant and is attended by other photographers and artists."
Serendipity Arles Grant 2020 Six Indian winners were invited by the organizers to Paris to attend the festival. Mattoo is reportedly the only recipient of a grant that has been blocked from flying to France by Indian authorities.
"There was another winner who was allowed the same flight today, but I was stopped ... I don't know why I wasn't allowed to leave the country," she said. rice field.
On Twitter, Mattoo shared a photo of his passport and boarding pass stamped "Cancel without prejudice" by the Immigration Bureau at Delhi Airport.
Despite some VOA attempts to find out why Mattoo stopped flying to France, the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs did not provide an explanation. However, junior officials from the Immigration Bureau of the New Delhi province said officials who were allowed to speak to the media were "not available." VOA also sent an email inquiry to the head of the Immigration Bureau of the ministry, but did not receive a response.
Media rights activists have criticized the Indian government's actions against Matu.
"The CPJ is asking authorities to allow Kashmir photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo (@mattoosanna) to travel freely," said the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
"Many Kashmiris journalists have reported serious difficulties in traveling abroad to CPJ, especially to attend panel and award events. Travel ban is August 2019 Since March, it is part of a systematic pattern of harassment of Kashmir journalists who are increasingly facing arbitrary arrests, frivolous lawsuits, threats, physical attacks and assaults, "the media rights group tweeted.
"The Government of India must immediately end the practice of banning Kashmir journalists from traveling abroad."
Julie, Vice President of Global Research, International Journalist Center Posetti said: International community.
"Sanna is not the first Kashmiris journalist to be denied the right to travel for no good reason, but the first Pulitzer Prize winner I know. Lana in March. The same was true in the Iyube case, where she was temporarily detained at Mumbai Airport to speak at an event hosted by the ICFJ and Doughty Street Chambers before the court upheld her travel rights. He was prevented from flying to London. During a call.
In March, Ayub, a prominent Indian research journalist and criticizing the ideology of Modi and his Indian People's Party Hindu Nationalist, said In Mumbai she was stopped on an international flight to Europe she was supposed to take. Participate in a journalism-related program and talk about the threats journalists are facing in India.
After Ayyub filed a court petition to challenge the government's ban on overseas travel,she was allowed to fly to Europesix days later.
"Journalist's Unjustified restrictions on travel are not only attacks on the right to free movement, but also attacks on the freedom of the press, "Posetti added.
In recent years, many Indian journalists and activists, including parts of the Kashmir region controlled by India, have claimed to have been banned from traveling abroad by Indian authorities.
In April of this year, Aakar Patel, a former chief of Amnesty International in India and a critic of Modi's voice, was suspended from boarding a plane to the United States due to a three-year-old lawsuit against the rights group. It is reported that it was. India office.
In 2019, Kashmir journalist Gohalzilani was stopped from flying to Germany by the Immigration Bureau at New Delhi Airport.
In recent years, at least two other journalists have also been blocked from flying abroad by Indian authorities.
Citing an unknown source, the Indian Express News website is on a flight ban list created by Indian authorities by several journalists in the Kashmir region controlled by India and abroad. I reported that I couldn't travel.
