Kashmiri journalist Majid Hyderi has been incarcerated since September 2023 under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), which allows for detention without trial for up to two years. As of late 2024, Hyderi was being held at Jammu’s Central Jail Kot Bhalwal and his health was at “serious risk” due to a preexisting spinal injury, exacerbated in detention, his mother Shafqat Jahan told CPJ.
Over the past decade, India has seen an uptick in the jailing of journalists under security laws, particularly in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir, following the 2019 repeal of its special autonomy status.
Hyderi is a freelance journalist and television commentator who has written extensively on political and social issues, including for the platform News Tell, where Jahan is the editor and publisher.
On September 14, 2023, police arrested Hyderi from his residence in the Peerbagh area of Srinagar, the main city in Jammu and Kashmir, based on a court order, Jahan told CPJ. He was arrested under four sections of the penal code relating to criminal conspiracy, extortion, spreading false information, and defamation, according to a copy of the police report, reviewed by CPJ.
On 31 March, Srinagar District court had issued a temporary injunction restraining Hyderi from publishing, circulating, or repeating allegations of fraud that he made about journalist Emaad Makhdoomi in a March 13 article on News Tell and social media. Makhdoomi had filed a suit for damages for defamation and a permanent injunction on March 15.
On June 17, the injunction was lifted after the court noted that Hyderi’s article was based on a public document about pending court cases against Makhdoomi that were a “matter of record,” Jahan told CPJ.
On September 16, 2023, Hyderi was granted bail but rearrested the same day under the PSA.
The PSA order, which CPJ reviewed, was based on a police dossier that accused Hyderi of using the “cover of journalism” for “provoking, instigating and extorting masses against the government” and working “against the ethics of journalism and misusing the profession of journalism by spreading and circulating fake information/ news/ false statements thus endangering the security of the state.” It also accused him of “advocating the idea of separatism and secessionist ideology through electronic means, tweets and social media posts.”
Hyderi’s mother rejected the allegations and told CPJ that her son’s work was purely journalistic.
“Majid is being targeted for raising uncomfortable questions about the conduct of a few powerful people. He has also reported on facts, never on hearsay. Show me one piece of his work that is anti-India,” she said, adding that the final hearing of a 2023 petition challenging the Hyderi’s detention remained pending at the Jammu and Kashmir High Court
As of late 2024, Jammu and Kashmir Police did not respond to CPJ’s email requesting comment.