Open letter against Pulitzer prize to Kashmir-based photojournalists

PTI, May 10, 2020, 9:00 PM IST

New Delhi: More than 100 personalities from different walks of life have written an open letter to the Pulitzer board objecting to the award given to two Kashmir-based photojournalists and said by awarding them the jury is promoting journalism of lies, misrepresentation of facts and separatism.

Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin are the three Indian photojournalists who were given the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in the Feature Photography category for their coverage on Kashmir.

In the open letter written to the administrator, board and jury of the Pulitzer Prize 2020, they raised objection to the award given to Khan and Yasin, claiming that both used the term India controlled Kashmir in captions of their pictures.

Underlining that the purpose of the Pulitzer Prize is to encourage free journalism, the letter states, Ironically, by giving the prize to photographers like Dar Yasin and Mukhtar Khan, you are promoting journalism and photography of lies, misrepresentation of facts and separatism.”

The letter said the name of Channi Anand has not been included in the letter because his photo does not malign India and unlike the other two photojournalists, it does not use the term Indian controlled Kashmir.

In the letter, the objection has also been raised against the usage of the phrases such as “contested territory of Kashmir and India revoked its independence, executed through a communications black out in the citation of the award.