A Policy Long Overdue

The news that Jammu and Kashmir’s new media policy will cover Facebook and Instagram is welcome. It is also long overdue. For years, the official rules dealt only with newspapers, television and registered publications. But most people today get their news from the phone in their hand. That space has stayed outside any system. A policy that accepts this reality is not a restriction on the press. It is simply an attempt to catch up. The need is real. In Kashmir, as anywhere else, news pages have multiplied. Some are run by trained journalists. Many are not. A rumour spreads in minutes. Photos are lifted without credit. Videos are shared without checking. Ordinary people, and sometimes public representatives, are abused online. A person’s name can be damaged before he even knows what was written about him. This is not journalism. It is noise. And it hurts everyone — the reader, the person being written about, and the honest reporter whose work gets lost in the crowd. But the policy must be made with care. Rules for social media can easily turn into rules on opinion. The line between accountability and censorship is thin. It must be drawn by people who understand both the law and the newsroom. The policy should ask for openness, identification, correction and a way to complain. It should not ask for approval before publishing. Above all, this is a moment for those who run online pages to look at themselves. Register your page. Name your editor. Check before you publish. Correct your mistakes openly. Give credit to your sources. Do not confuse speed with accuracy. A policy can make rules. But professionalism has to come from inside. The government should act sensibly. The platforms should act responsibly. And the reader, in the end, should be able to trust what he reads — whichever screen it appears on.