23/02/2021
We have always come to you for help: The Kashmir Walla is battling at multiple fronts ā and if you donāt act now, it would be too late.
2020 was a year like no other and we walked into it already battered. The freedom of the press in Kashmir was touching new lows as the entire population was gradually coming out of one of the longest communication blackouts in the world.
The last five months of 2019 were exceptionally challenging. While we kept on reporting and writing despite serious odds, the lockdown had pushed us into a serious financial crunch. There was no money. There was a moment when shutting down our operations seemed the only option. We arenāt dependent on government advertisements. We donāt also seek such advertisements as a policy.
This was also the time when the established media crawled and crumbled in front of the government pressure, The Kashmir Walla persevered.
We applied for international journalism grants and, luckily, we were funded by Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, an international body working for freedom of right to information, for a year. And more than 200 people supported us as subscribers through our membership model that was launched in 2020 spring. Thatās how we sustained.
Today, all our resources have dried up, almost. We would have shut down if it wasnāt for you, the readers, who give us strength. It was your solidarity that kept us going through these trying times. It was your support that empowered us to exclusively keep on breaking important stories. We honestly and fairly covered human rights violations, surveillance, identity politics, health as COVID-19 rattled the Valley, and accountability ā in multiple mediums, including texts, video, and audio.
Our free and fair journalism didnāt come without a price. We were harassed, intimidated, summoned to police stations for questioning repeatedly, our reporters were beaten up and we were consistently threatened with arrest and jail. We have an FIR against us for our reportag