‘Today you are forced to say that you have to be nationalist first, then a journalist’: Shujaat Bukhari

Rising Kashmir Editor-in-Chief Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead by gunmen outside his office in Press Colony, Srinagar, today. Newslaundry has had a longtime association with Bukhari. He frequently wrote columns for us and also participated as a panellist on The Media Rumble last year. The discussion, From Kashmir to the Northeast – The Tyranny of Distance, had Bukhari speak on the increasingly nationalist discourse in the mainstream media that is blind to the plight of locals who have suffered in conflict zones.

In 2012, Bukhari wrote a piece on families of murdered Kashmiri journalists and their fight for justice. He wrote:

Though working conditions for journalists in Kashmir have seen a change, the professional hazards continue to loom large. In three years of unrest from 2008 to 2010, journalists were worst hit. The police and CRPF beat scores of them and publications of newspapers were suspended for many weeks. Habib Naqash, a veteran photojournalist has not missed any occasion when journalists were beaten by the security forces while discharging their professional duties. Daring the odds of survival, there are many such professionals who have braved the onslaught from both sides and never looked back.