SAWM condemns govt. refusal to allow Sanna Mattoo to travel to accept Pullitzer Prize

Sanna Irshad Mattoo, a Kashmiri photojournalist working for Reuters news agency, was stopped from leaving the country on October 18. Ms. Mattoo was headed to the United States to receive her Pulitzer Prize at the Pulitzer awards ceremony in New York when she was stopped by immigration authorities at the Delhi International Airport.

SAWM India condemns the Indian government’s decision. Receiving the Pulitzer is an honour for any journalist. Effectively, the government has stolen from Ms. Mattoo what was a big milestone moment in her career. She was awarded the Pulitzer for a photograph showing an anti- COVID vaccination drive in the hilly Lidderwat area of Anantnag district in Kashmir.

It should be of deep concern to every citizen of the country that the government can intrude into and cancel a fellow citizen’s travel plans without explanation. Ms. Mattoo was prevented earlier in the year too from travelling abroad.

If the government has specific information against Ms. Mattoo for barring her from travelling out of the country, it should tell her what wrong she has committed.

The attitude of the government seems to be that it owes no explanation to anyone and that it will become an obstacle in a citizen’s path merely because it can.

Over the last year, the government has prevented other Kashmiri journalists and at least one Kashmiri academic from leaving the country for assignments or employment abroad. This is a worrying trend, associated as it is only with authoritarian regimes. Certainly, these are among the actions that has given India its abysmal 150th rank in the World Press Freedom Index.

Nothing can return to a 28-year-old the honour of receiving a prestigious award in person. The government, which claims to have restored peace and normalcy in Kashmir, has diminished itself with this action against a young citizen of the country.