The Daily Fix: In both India and Pakistan, the space for a rational, questioning media has shrunk

The Big Story: Unfreedom of the press

Indian news channels glimmered with righteous wrath on Tuesday after news that Cyril Almeida, a journalist with the Pakistani daily, Dawn, said he had been put on an "exit control" list. Almeida was barred from leaving Pakistan after he wrote a report which documented a heated exchange between that country's government and military: the government, he reported, told the generals that the country would be isolated if it did not act against terror. This was catnip to the Indian media – Pakistan cracking down on a journalist over India's favourite hobby horse, terror bred on Pakistani soil.

But before it lets rip the paeans to press freedom, the India media might want to look closer home. In Kashmir, for instance. Just days ago, the state government barred the Kashmir Reader from publication. Reason: it put out material which "tends to incite acts of violence and disturb public peace and tranquility". Since then, the newspaper's editor has pointed out that the charges were vague and did not name "a specific report so that we could answer it". But the government remains tight-lipped.

In July, after the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani triggered massive protests in Kashmir, the government banned the publication of Valley-based newspapers for three days. Government spokesperson Naeem Akhtar had then said it was not a ban but an "enforcement of curfew", which meant newspapers could not be distributed. But that does not quite explain why printing presses were raided and newspaper copies seized. Neither occasion created a ripple in the national media. There were no harangues about the freedom of the press.

In both India and Pakistan, the space for a rational, questioning media is shrinking. Journalists must operate within the bounds of the agenda set by government or risk being called anti-national. But pointing out that Pakistan must curb state-sponsored terror should not be India's remit alone. Just as the outrage against government excesses in Kashmir cannot be hijacked by Pakistan. In the long run, this criminalisation of discourse that does not suit the government, this narrow understanding of what journalists can say or do, will be deeply damaging to democracy in both countries.

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story

Twitter rises to the defence of Cyril Almeida, shows Rhema Mukti Baxter.

Rayan Naqash finds journalists in Srinagar protesting against the ban on the Kashmir Reader.

Political pickings

1. In his Dussera speech in Lucknow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stayed silent on surgical strikes but asserted that countries that supported terror should not be spared.

2. The government has decided it will not release evidence of the surgical strikes that the army said had taken place on September 28.

3. All the portfolios held by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who is ill in hospital, have been handed over to state Finance Minister O Panneerselvam.

4. The Bodoland People's Front joined the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a coalition in Assam earlier this year. But now the All Bodo Students' Union has revived its demand for a separate Bodo state, organising blockades on highways.

Punditry

1. In the Indian Express, Apoorvanand writes how compensation to the family of a man accused in the Dadri lynching case upsets notions of justice.

2. In the Hindu, Nissim Mannathukkaren writes of the myths that sustain a militarised society.

3. In the Economic Times, Ram Singh explains the contributions to the Contract Theory which won Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström the Nobel for economics.

Giggles

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Welles shot two schedules in Mexico when, inevitably, the money ran out. By the time he had enough money to begin shooting again, Patty McCormick had grown up. Consequently the Dulcie track was done away with.