The arrest of Kashmir-based freelance journalist Irfan Mehraj by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has drawn blunt criticism from journalistic and activism bodies. The arrest made on March 20 is being seen as a gross subjugation of media and press freedom in the Union Territory. NIA arrested Mehraj after “comprehensive investigations” into an NGO terror-funding case dating back to October 2020. The main accusation against Mehraj is that he was working in association with Khurram Parvez’s Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) — an organisation that NIA claims has been propagating a “secessionist agenda” under the garb of safeguarding human rights. The arrest of Irfan Mehraj is unsettling because it is made by citing an extreme charge of involvement in terrorism-related activities, without apparently providing substantial evidence. More importantly, there is a pattern to it. Mehraj is not the first journalist to be arrested under the vague and ambiguous pretext of terror-funding. Other journalists from the valley, including Sajad Gul and Fahad Shah, have been incarcerated under the notorious laws like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Besides frequent detentions and arrests, journalists in the valley are reported to have been facing constraints on a day-to-day basis as well. The case of Sanna Irshad Mattoo — a 28-year-old Kashmiri journalist who was prevented from flying to the US for receiving something as prestigious as Pulitzer prize — is still fresh in our memory. Such high-profile cases at least make headlines! In general, the persistent, and mostly unfounded invocation of terrorism-related grounds may have created an air of suspicion against local journalists in the valley, making their life and work really tough. Apart from press freedom, the dilution of journalistic bodies like Kashmir Press Club has also watered down the freedom to form association, shrinking an intellectual space that journalists must be entitled to in any case. Kashmir, it is well known, has been a turbulent society with an equally volatile polity. Journalism acquires natural sharpness and calibre in such circumstances, and its role increases multifold. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that J&K is in a phase of socio-political transition. Journalism has a great role to play in shaping the quality of this transition. By stifling the media industry, willingly or unwillingly, the government and investigating agencies might be unleashing grave injustices to the people of Kashmir by not letting them grow in an ambience of freedom. Irrespective of what the outcome of the terror-funding investigation against Mehraj comes out to be, it is apparently clear that the NIA is shooting arrows in the dark on serious but unfounded, ambiguous grounds. The much-required balance between press freedom and public order or state safety appears to be completely thrown off the track. Irrespective of how much the government is concerned about state safety, its disregard for press freedom in the valley is pinching and alarming, and highly disastrous for the quality of life in the Union Territory. Amnesty International India used direct language in saying that “the arrest of Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj under terror charges is a travesty” and “yet another instance of the long-drawn repression of human rights and the crackdown on media freedoms and civil society.” The Editors Guild of India (EGI), too, expressed its concern “about the excessive use of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against journalists.” The gravity of the issue can be gauged from the fact that Mehraj’s arrest has attracted international condemnation. Apart from EGI and Amnesty International, the Press Club of India, All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice, and the UN special rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders have also denounced the arrest in strong terms. The state should, by no accounts, remain ignorant of the power that the press wields and the role it assumes in shaping the future of society. This ignorance could prove to be self-destructive for larger national interests. In the name of augmenting national security, by using activists and journalists as sacrificial lambs despite lack of clear-cut evidence against their complicity in alleged acts, the government may be hollowing up the country from inside, and making its fairly consolidated case weaker at the international stage when it comes to administration of Jammu & Kashmir.